IS Virus: Episode 2-6 -Infection-
by tonbonkittybon
Summary: Not only did Phantom Task gain new members, but they've finally made it to the United States of America. unfortunately, they've come at a terrible time. The renegade's antics have sparked a massive wave across the nation, and one wrong move could set it ablaze. How do you convince them you're on a rescue mission when both sides think of you as an enemy?
1. Ride to Hell

_IS Virus: Episode 2-6 - Infection_

 _Part 1: Ride to Hell_

 **-SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA; 20:31, FOURTEEN DAYS TO ELECTION-**

"And that'll do it for the final debate of the election season. Next time we see you, hopefully it will be upon the White House. And to the viewers back home, you've seen the candidates. You know their opinions and beliefs. You've heard their voice. Now it's time for them to hear yours. Now the decision is up to you. While millions have already voted, election day, November 8, is just 12 days away. One thing everyone here can agree on is we hope you will go vote. It is one of the honors and obligations of living in this great country. Thank you and good night."

The final presidential debate was over. Only the fated vote remained. The surrounding student population was already making up their minds about who they'd vote for...and why.

"I think I'm going for Jacquelyn Leonie. She's definitely a woman's rights kind of girl, which is exactly what we need in the White House!"

"You read my mind! No more men trying to cover up for their, uh...mistakes, shall we say."

"I'm casting my vote for Michelle Barton. She's the more sensible person, and she's not going to neglect the forgotten men and women, like our last president has."

"I'm with you on the women, but...men? They need to be forgotten! Did you forget how much crap we're in thanks to them?"

"Honey, that's the fault of the politicians."

"Who are men, might I add."

Just then, a group of women caught a group of men within their crosshairs. One of them decided it was a good time to be a heroine. She went up to confront them while no one was looking, with four backup friends in tow.

"Hey, assholes!" She silently spat in the men's faces.

"Whoa, lady!" Oh, here we go, "Why?!"

"Why? Really?" The female student snapped, "It's because you have the nerve to walk into us to invade our space. That's why."

"Look," a male student tried to move away from the confrontation, "We're just going back to our dorms-" but smacked his back against another female student. Actually, it was a love tap, but the woman on the receiving end didn't take that too lightly.

"Oh, so you're gonna try and cover it up?!" That woman whispered, "Look what you just did, stupid!"

"Wait, no!" The men stammered, "It was just an accident!"

But yet another woman made his hand stumble upon... the forbidden area.

"The frick you doing?!" She slapped him, "Asshat!"

"Not cool, bro!" A bystander saw the grope.

"Yeah, dude! What the hell?!" And another.

"He copped me!" The victim-faker screamed.

"In public?!" The first woman faked surprise.

And within seconds, the oblivious men found themselves within an unquenchable firestorm.

 **-MGM GRAND, CLARK COUNTY; 22:36-**

A group of men was sitting together, discussing their future business ventures when one of them got a sudden text alert. He checked the notification and groaned for all to hear. Then, he showed it:

-FOX NEWS ALERT: Three male students from San Diego State University registered as sexual offenders. Fraternity Alpha Psi Rho under investigation-

"Again with the-this is the third time this week!" One of the men griped.

"First, Hollywood," another man said, "Then the technology and manufacturing industries. Now, this. Are we next?!"

"I'm counting on it," the meeting organizer said, "And I'm not waiting for another one to come at me."

"So, what do we do?"

"We need our own protection group."

"You're free to use mine," another men piped, "I've already got them on a roll."

 **-GREAT FALLS SPORTS SHOOTING COMPLEX, CASCADE COUNTY; 11:22, THIRTEEN DAYS TO ELECTION-**

"Hey! Get help!" a woman shouted, "She's been shot!"

"What happened?!" the complex manager asked.

"He did it..." the woman who's been shot said, "He's the one..."

"What?!" the man was surprised, "No! It wasn't me!"

"What the hell..." the manager stood up and vented his anger at the man, "Bad enough men have a shit reputation, now you wanna get back at women?!"

"No, I swear!" the man stammered, "I was at the restroom doing a number two-"

"Yeah, and I was at a strip club, stuffing a pole in my ass!" The manager would have none of it, "Get out of here right now-"

"Actually," and all of a sudden, a man in a black suit and tie appeared with a laptop and a hidden camera, "I have a clip that can solve everything."

"What the-" a woman screamed, "The hell did you come from?!"

"The bathroom," the suited man said, "Where I happened upon a disturbing little getup." He hit play.

It showed exactly what happened. When the man went to go take a dump, the two women concocted a plan to take advantage of the man. One of them wore medical gloves and grabbed his rifle. The other laid on the ground and waited for the man to finish up his business. Once they heard the door about to open, the women took her aim and fired.

"God dammit..." the "victim" hissed.

"Let's get out of here..." the other woman tried to haul her out.

"And where do you think you're going, sluts?" The suited man thwacked them in the head and knocked them unconscious.

"Holy...what do we do?" the manager was not happy with what he saw, "I did not want this to happen..."

"I got their faces," the suited man tapped the enter button, "I'm uploading it to YouTube."

 **-STATE CAPITOL, PULASKI COUNTY; 16:08-**

That video sparked major outrage. So many comments about how drama and allegations were fabricated, that all the major news networks had no choice but to talk about it. And, as expected, there were protests. They all started peaceful, but in a few cities someone, be it a man who was possessed by his heart or a woman who was desperate for attention, threw something at an unsuspecting individual. Long story short, those protests got violent.

Unfortunately, it was the last item to address in State Congress for the day.

"This has been the main problem with the so-called woman's rights activists," a congresswoman stated, "They claim that they champion the cause of feminism, and then they go and pull this stunt."

"We have to do something to restrain them. That much is clear," someone else said, "But what can we do that won't make our citizens lose trust in us?"

"I'm afraid that that's not possible," a congressman said, "The landscape of politics today simply will not allow that, partly because of the polarized views from both sides."

"Crap, he's right," a woman face palmed, "We have to pick a side." Then, she looked around her, "And I think it's pretty obvious which side we have to join."

"Hear, hear," someone agreed, "I move to bring to discussion the Gender Equalizer initiative."

All around, clamor across the capitol. Outrage, for and against the initiative, because of the impact on the balance of the people, in the city, and later, across the country.

 **-GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA; 17:59-**

"Ok, girls! That's a wrap!" A researcher said.

A team of interns and researchers were wrapping up a project on the world's first artificial...um...detachable penis. They checked to make sure that their erogenous zones could sync up with the device and simulate the same...experiences that a male felt, albeit double the magnitude and duration. Now, all that's left was to load synthetic sperm. But that was a job for tomorrow. For now, it was high fives and even higher spirits.

But not from the bushes. As soon as the girls left, a small team of boys snuck their way past their eyes, and into the complex. They navigated their way to the lab. The door simply opened and let them in. And there on the table in the middle of the room lay the newest invention for all to see. The boys cringed at the very sight before getting back into their mission. They carefully opened the toy's fluid intake. Then, they swapped out every ounce of liquid with Icy Hot.

"Bro, what are we doing?" A boy said.

"We're feeding a horse its hay," another boy oh so whimsically retorted.

"Ugh...why?..."

"Guys, focus," the leader said, "the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can put everything behind us."

"Yeah, no. We can never unsee that..."

 **-NEXT DAY, 09:22-**

And thus, the day where both worst fears were realized. The moment of the Expo of the Women of STEM, the main attraction, was in fact, that thing. After it was showcased, half of the attendees wanted to try it out, so a backstage space was prepared for them. Most of them were dumb enough to fill their barrels. And as a result, so many women felt excruciating pain where they shouldn't.

And the men were too busy laughing their lungs out.

"Hahahaaaa! That's what you get, bitches!"

"Oh, man! If only the renegade was here..."

"Hah, don't count on it. He's claiming a few women are "good people". Yuck."

"Where is he, anyway? I'd like to give him a piece of my mind for letting those other women go free."

 **-PORT OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY, TRI-STATE AREA; 10:11, TWELVE DAYS TO ELECTION-**

The boat carrying Phantom Task and the renegade just made landfall in the port. They stole one of the many vans in the dock and snuck their way out of the city and into the heart of the area. And never in their lives have the ever felt so tense. (Except for the renegade and his sprite, just keep snoozing your way out, why don't you...)

"Wow..." Chelsea said, "You can just smell the passive aggressive in the air..."

"I'm more worried about the glances they gave us when we got off the boat," Madoka muttered.

"Huh?!" Cecilia stammered, "Were they suspicious?!"

"That's the worst part...No, they weren't..." Madoka chuckled.

"Uy..." Cecilia peered out the heavily tinted window.

"Mind telling me what bug infected your brain?" Autumn asked Chelsea.

"BugSSSSSS..." Chelsea said bug-eyed, "We are waltzing into enemy territory with a human core, who just so happens to be a man. Tell me how you refused to just go to the UK twelve hours ago."

"Your guess is as good as mine," Madoka said, "Although it would be a letdown if we never found out what happened to Claire and that French pilot."

"We're here to pull them outta the pit," Autumn reiterated, "We're not gonna see what happens. We're here to make it happen."

"Sounds like way too much work," Madoka sarcastically said.

Cecilia was about to echo that statement until Autumn butt in a-

"Rebranding is always a pain in the ass. But I got way too much commitment to back out now. Besides, what fun is it to just stay hidden for two hundred or so years?"

"I much rather stay in that lava shelter than set foot in this disease..." Madoka growled as the van came up on quite possibly the worst obstacle of all time...

BEEP*BEEP*

"HURRY UP! I'M RUNNING LATE HERE!"

...traffic jams.

"Ugh...if this is anything to go by..." Madoka growled. She would much rather be out and about chopping off heads one by one, instead of being stuck in her worst favorite pastime. Come to think of it, ANYTHING would be better than having to sit through this, were it not for two very alarming reasons that brought them all back to ground zero.

The first reason was coming up on them.

"2, 4, 6, 8! We don't wanna procreate! 2, 4, 6, 8! We don't wanna procreate!"

"The hell is that?" Madoka questioned.

"Oh, no. It's happening," Chelsea shrunk behind the passenger seat, "Because the UN failed to rein in the renegade, and because of the candidates' very vocal views on gender equality, everybody's gone bonkers!"

"What do you mean?"

"Protests and counter protests, all of them among gender lines!" Chelsea shook Madoka up, "And if we get caught in the crossfire, who knows what will become of us!"

"LEGGO, PILFER BRAINS!" Madoka knocked her off, "Hey, do something about this maid of yours, will...ya..."

Cecilia couldn't, because she was staring at the second reason why a low profile is key to survival. And Madoka found the exact same thing.

The Brunhilde. Walking on the sidewalk in plain sight, not giving a care in the world. Eyes peeled for any sign of resistance, a.k.a. the renegade.

"What...is she...DOING HERE?!" Cecilia slammed on Sokoto's stomach.

"UGH-WHOA-I'm awawawaaaa...*YAWN*" Sokoto woke up, "Are we there yet..."

"LOOK AT HER!" Cecilia grabbed his head and squished it against the tinted window, "WHO IS THAT?!"

"Mmmmm... (Uhhhhh...)" Sokoto ran his eyes across the crowd, until he felt his eyes being forced to look at a rather tall, black-haired woman who looked like she just came from a workout and was about to head off into an office, "Whht? Thh bgg thhl phnnhddlh whh lkgks lkhk shh chhld smmmhn uh dhmhn buh lkknng nnth yuh ssllss? (What? The big tall pin-needle who looks like she could summon a demon by looking into your souls?)"

For some reason Madoka snapped. She immediately yanked him off, slammed him to the ceiling of the van, and shoved him to the seat beside her. Then, she stared into his soul and tried to mess it up, "Never...ever...humiliate her...Someone like you would never be a match for her..."

"But I can train, starting with you," Sokoto turned off his brain for this bit, "You two do give off the same demon banshee aura..."

"Hurry up," Chifuyu complained to the street light, "How hard is it to change color?" Upon turning her gaze to the heavy traffic, she noticed one particular vehicle that was rocking to and fro in ways that no vehicle should ever be able to sway. She took one hard look into its side. She could faintly make out a boy being thrashed on all sides, slowly rising up and giving a smug grin, then getting yanked back towards the rear for more punishment.

"How you ever survived the wrong side of women, I'll never know..." she just shook her head. As the light finally turned green, she kept walking, turning back to the van every now and then since they were moving at the same pace. The next few glances piqued her interest even more, however. She could slowly make out the image that was unfolding in real life, and only she would get any sort of enjoyment out of it. The boy she saw earlier was giving every single passenger in the van an absolute hell-raiser. And one of those passengers was someone she thought she'd never see in real life.

It was an exhausted Madoka, who had worse luck holding him down than the rest of the world.

"The hell?" Chifuyu rubbed her eyes and gave a second glance. The van returned to normal, "Huh...maybe I had too much to drink..." Was what she thought until she looked in the back door. The boy and another girl were being smacked against the window. With blonde hair. Super spike-y, and drill-y. She could make out their words.

"Thanks for everything, renegade!" the blonde woman growled.

"Oh, piss in your own mouth, Cece!" the boy mocked before they were both thrown back down.

"Huh...well, that certainly didn't take long," Chifuyu smirked before tossing a tracker at the van.

"Whoa..." Silvia was rattled awake the instant the tracker hit the van. She fizzled to the area of impact and inspected the device. "Heh...pretty high level stuff here. Let's see if I...can't...DOOOOOOO...SOMETHIIIIIIIIIIIIIING..." She tried to pry it off. She even tried hacking its circuits to short circuit it. But this was far beyond her programming.

"Maybe an upgrade or two wouldn't hurt..." Silvia muttered, "And do I really wanna make another hole in the van?..." She saw the hole created from just the racket caused by Phantom Task, if they were really supposed to be Phantom Task. "Ok, let's see who sent the-YIPE!" She saw. The one figure who could aim a gun at her target and hit it blindfolded like she was tossing a coin into a well.

"*GULP*" Silvia fizzled back to the darkest corner of the van, rocking back and forth with every single dark thought coming to mind as she visualized the instant they would run into the Brunhilde.

 **-RAMADA STATEN ISLAND, 13:43-**

"Carefully..." Silvia creeped behind the tracker while Chelsea weaved her saber around it. And with each stroke, Silvia grew more paranoid, "Caaarrrrrreeeeeeefuuuuullyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy-"

"Got it!" Chelsea managed to saw the metal off, felling the tracker to the ground.

"Woohoo-OOF!" And Silvia, who was stuck to the thing until she fizzled to Chelsea's shoulder, "So, how're we gonna get rid of it?"

And by a stroke of convenience, a trash collection truck happened to approach them. Chelsea threw the tracker into the truck the moment the dumpster was emptied of its contents.

"You wanna stand guard?" Silvia asked, "I can amplify your IS detector."

"Good idea," Chelsea said, not wanting to be caught in the verbal crossfire happening in room 219.

"No way!" Sokoto gasped, "Your sister is the strongest in the world!"

"Don't call her that..." Madoka muttered, "She tried to kill me, after all..."

"Well, who wouldn't?" Autumn peeked out the window, "I mean, we are associated with the renegade, after all."

"And with the added tensions of the upcoming election," Cecilia was acting paranoid, rocking back and forth in fetal position, "And with Class 4 coming to our location, and with my reputation out in the open like a tea kettle overflowing with salt and sugar, and the fact that she's going to chop my innards into chunks and barbecue them over my burning brain-AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! WHY MEEEEEEEEEEEE?!"

"Uh...I thought you got your shit together already, lady..." Sokoto cringed.

"When you're up against the strongest pilot in the world," Autumn mused, "you throw that shit out the window." She then projected a number of images with Chifuyu in action, "They don't call her the Brunhilde for nothing. She beat out nearly two hundred other pilots in the first Mondo Grosso. She beat even more during the second, and thanks to the Gospel's intel, we learned that she's taken out over 2300 missiles within a matter of minutes."

"All that in MINUTES?!" Sokoto screamed.

"That's the current stats, but I'm betting it was way more than that. And let's not forget this tidbit: Chifuyu managed to disable 7 aircraft carriers and over 30 escort carriers. By herself."

"Whoa..." Sokoto was filled with awe. If a single person could do that much damage in a short amount of time...imagine how strong that person must be, "Shall we get caught?"

"Uh, no offense, but you and Silvia are like straw-wrappers that are thinner than paper," Autumn shut him down, "She'd pick you apart and use you as a placemat without even blinking."

"Come on!" Sokoto pranced around the room, "Have a little faith, why don'tcha! We've gotten out of sticky situations before!"

"Faith?! FAITH?!" Cecilia and Madoka deployed their weapons and tried to bash Sokoto in the gut, but failed miserably.

"Hey, watch where you point those things!" Sokoto shouted from between the swords and the rifle.

"Never mind your faith, boy!" Cecilia got in his face, "Do you know that we are now DEAD BEFORE ARRIVAL?!"

"Did anything Autumn say click in that pea-sized brain of yours?!" Madoka followed up.

"What about?" was all they heard come out of his mouth.

"Oh, we're so dead..." Cecilia crawled under the sheets while Madoka was once again rethinking her relationship with the new Phantom Task.

"Look, all I know is that there's this giant conspiracy about gender wars, whether the Brood-Hill-uh knows about them or not," Sokoto mispronounced the title, "So, I figure if we can get her distracted by one of us, the rest of us can go look for clues about the other women gone missing."

"Ok, I guess I could buy that," Cecilia acted thoughtful.

"Wha-really?!" Madoka was taken aback that she actually agreed with one of his crazy ideas.

"Just...just one problem, though..." Cecilia acted unstable and slowly approached he renegade, "Say, let's just say that in this happy-go-lucky world of yours, that...we do have the power to defeat Lady Orimura, and we do have the...bright and shining dolt...to take her off our scent..."

"Uh," Sokoto got nervous, "What's your poin-"

At which point, Cecilia grabbed his neck and pulled him in, "WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER FIFTEEN PILOTS ON OUR ASSES THAT DON'T HAVE THE NAME ORIMURA, HUH?! WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT THEM?!"

Sokoto fought with all his might to resist the urge to laugh. He only saved enough energy to squeeze through his lips, "Improv?"

Ceilia dropped him and went back to bed, "Did he really destroy Japan, or did I just down a bunch of acid..." and buried her head under the pillows.

Madoka processed the events of most recent before deciding that it was better to avoid meaningful banter with him at all costs. She just went back to Autumn, who was rubbing her head in the living room, "I already forgot why we brought this guy along with us..."

"He's an erratic one, just like Forte," Autumn just said, "Don't question it, and it'll be less painful."

"Ugh..." Madoka just went to the window and curled up beside the light. She peeked out and saw Chelsea and the yellow sprite trying to avoid coming inside.

"And that's how I came to life, so to speak," Silvia just wrapped up her origin story with Chelsea.

"So...you're able to...manipulate small electronics...when you're in standby mode?" Chelsea had a hard time processing all this.

"It's a lot to take in, I know," Silvia wagged her hand, "But trust me when I say it comes in handy. Nothing is more reliable than having the fourth wall broken!"

"That doesn't give me a lot of hope..."

"Well, how do you suppose aneki learned to speak for herself?"

"Aneki...you mean, the Gospel? Well...huh..."

"The same way," Silvia pointed out, "He just kept yapping away like nobody's business. It's irritating, but if you put up with it long enough, you get to learn a lot about your partners."

"Learn about them...Maybe I should try that...it's been a while since Cecilia last ranted to me about some trivial matter..."

"I suggest you let her do it first. She's that way-too-talkative type, from what I'm seeing."

"In this volatile atmosphere?"

"Yep!"

"Well, let me say this. The day the renegade talks to anyone here is the day civil war recommences."

And the two shared a laugh until...

"You have a moment?" a tall woman wearing sunglasses, a beret, a cashmere sweater,and a khaki skirt approached them.

"Um...can I help you?" Chelsea said.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you saw anyone come inside lately?"

"Uh, just some tourists. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Ok. Good. I was a little nervous since everyone's on edge. Thanks for the heads up." And the woman walked inside.

"Um...thanks?" Chelsea was confused, "I guess..." She kept eyeing the woman until she entered the hotel. And the moment the doors open was the moment Chelsea saw the woman's hair. There was only one woman in the world who could properly pull off split-hair style.

"Silvia..." she whispered, "We got trouble..."

Silvia crawled out from behind the exhaust, trembling in absolute fear.

And Madoka saw the whole thing go down. "THAT LITTLE...HOW DID YOU MISS...oh, screw it..." She rushed to the kitchen and banged two pots as loudly as she could. That got the attention of everyone in the room as they gathered to witness the spectacle of the clang bang.

"Keep it down, dickwad!" Autumn said, "I'd like to get some shut eye before we set off to get our asses kicked."

"The ass-kicker's on her way over here right now!" Madoka screamed, "She just entered the lobby!"

"What?!" they all exclaimed.

"All of you, out the window! Now!" Sokoto cracked his fists and walked towards the door, "I'll buy you some time!"

"For what, kumbayah?!" Madoka grabbed his arm, "No, you're not gonna be the tragic hero!"

"Come on," Autumn said, "Help me get this open!" Cecilia rushed to dismantle the AC unit.

But Sokoto sensed a harsh aria just outside the front door. He pushed Madoka aside and activated his shield bracelet, "GET DOWN!"

Because as soon as he braced himself for the worst, the door flew off its hinges and slammed into his shield and knocked him down. It then flipped over Cecilia and Autumn, crashed through the window, and totaled the van outside.

Such was a little fraction of the power of the woman who stood before them. Just one flick of the knee was enough to make that big of an impression. What would she be capable of when wielding an IS? Sokoto felt a sort of fear and anticipation mixing in him as he and the rest of his crew collapse in her sight. He was going to get his first encounter with the final boss. He couldn't be more terrified and excited.

The woman took off her sunglasses. Madoka recognized those eyes. Because they were just like hers. The woman glanced at the group, then smirked at him,

"Well, there's my favorite little troublemaker."


	2. The Valkyrie's Warning

_Part 2: The Valkyrie's Warning_

"Oh, crap..." Sokoto faintly muttered as he was eyeing the woman who felled the entire group down with one kick of the door. The woman threw her sunglasses at the broken window and walked towards Sokoto with a fiery vengeance.

"So, this is the little pipsqueak who destroyed my home?" She hissed, "Twice?"

"Who wants to know?..." Sokoto grunted. Since he used his full strength the deflect the door, his body felt shattered.

"Ooh, a tough guy," the woman strutted towards him. She could tell that door did a number on his arm. So, she stomped on it, breaking the shield and pinning him down. Then, she knelt down on his stomach and slowly reaches for his neck, "I know what to do with tough guys."

For some reason, Cecilia couldn't bear the sight of Sokoto getting killed by her former teacher. So, she unconsciously deployed her drones and had them fire at Chifuyu, who effortlessly avoided all their shots.

"Oh, I had expected better from you," Chifuyu glared at Cecilia.

"Eep!" Cecilia winced, "I...I didn't-"

"You couldn't dig into Ichika's pants, so now you're diving into the renegade's?"

Cecilia suddenly stooped to depression.

"That's low..." Madoka grunted as she tried to pry herself on her feet, "even for you..."

Chifuyu recognized that voice. Her demeanor turned viscous as she walked towards the woman who used to be an afterthought, now recognized as the one who killed her parents.

"To dispose of the lowest of garbage," Chifuyu hissed, "sometimes you gotta think like them."

Madoka didn't take that well. She deployed her twin swords and tried to cut Chifuyu down. But none of them ever came close to touching her. Chifuyu waited until Madoka was completely drowned in her own anger to kick her into the tv. Madoka was knocked out, so Sokoto got up to take her place. He quickly jumped at Chifuyu, but she swatted him down and held his neck to the ground. Autumn tried to save him, but Chifuyu simply shoved her out the window.

"Incoming!" Silvia screamed.

Chelsea quickly deployed and caught Autumn before she hit the ground.

"You ok?" She asked.

"Nope..." Autumn said, "I think her teaching years made her even stronger..."

"2300 rockets..." Silvia whimpered.

Back in the hotel room, Chifuyu was satisfied with the impression she left them and turned to the renegade she has against the wall. She clamped down on his neck, and he held onto her hand for dear life as she spoke, "Now, what should be done about the one who nearly killed my friends?"

"Heh..." Sokoto grunted and grinned, "Why don't you ask your gut?..."

Chifuyu immediately looked down. "How did-"

Sokoto managed to simultaneously deploy his right arm and ready a fully charged palmar blast, in an instant. Without making any noise. Something not even Chifuyu was able to do.

And something else she didn't expect was a small yellow sprite to materialize on his shoulder.

"You came here without an IS, didn't you?!" Silvia shouted, "That's why I was unable to detect you, but that's also why you're going to die unless you let him go!"

"What are you?" Chifuyu asked.

"EEK!" Silvia hid behind Sokoto's neck, "Forgive me..."

"Heh..." Chifuyu chuckled before releasing him, "Consider that a small teaser of what's to come, should you decide to venture further beyond the state's borders."

He dropped to the floor, right arm forced to withdraw, still maintaining his stone cold gaze at her as she was leaving, "Just because you're the Brunchilla...you think you can do whatever you want..."

"Oh, I know I can," Chifuyu stopped at the doorway and turned to the window, "Just ask my friends on the other side."

"Huh?!" Sokoto and Silvia both swerved their heads towards the window. An angry female mob had gathered outside the hotel, no doubt having received word from someone that the renegade was hiding here.

"How?" Sokoto whispered, "They shouldn't have been able to find us so fast!"

"Unless someone told them..." Silvia looked back at the door, but Chifuyu was gone, "Grr, this was a trap, through and through."

"We can worry about that later. Can you deploy wings?"

"Yeah..." Silvia hesitated a little before realizing what he was trying to do, "No way, nu-uh! We are not doing that!"

"You got any better ideas?" Sokoto managed to salvage enough strength to carry Madoka to the window.

Silvia was thinking of any possible escape routes that don't draw attention to the group. Unfortunately, they would all take too long, given the one hundred percent chance that someone from the mob would likely have already called the police before arriving here. She fizzled to Cecilia's shoulder, "Hey, Drillago! BIIIIIIIIIG favor to ask!"

"Uh!" Cecilia snapped out of her mind recalibration, "Yeah? What?"

"Have your drones shoot up the place and provide cover fire so we can get out of here!"

"Are you nuts?! Do you have any idea how much blood we'll have on our hands?!"

"Not nearly as much as they do," Silvia bluntly stated as she fizzled back to Sokoto to tune the IS for escape.

Cecilia thought long and hard before coming to terms with the current situation. She deployed her drones and had them join Chelsea on the outside, "Status?"

"Not good!" Chelsea shouted, "We're behind the front door, and there's a gigantic crowd of angry sign people!"

"Where is he?!" One of the protesters shouted, "Where is the little turn and all his turd friends?!" The rest of the crowd followed suit and demanded that the renegade surrender and the rest of Phantom Task be turned in.

"No one's tried to barge in, though," Autumn said, "Maybe waiting for some backup around the rear."

"Window it is, then," Cecilia communicated, "Autumn, can you use your wind gusts to clear a path?"

"I can try," Autumn readied her IS.

"Sokoto, do you have the fledgling demon?" Cecilia asked Sokoto.

"Yep," Sokoto hauled Madoka on his back, "Just say the word."

"Everyone, on my mark!" Cecilia readied her IS, while Sokoto let out his wings. Autumn charged her IS, while Chelsea readied her saber. They all waited until the crowd got into a frenzy and lost control, breaking down their group formation. Once Cecilia saw the mob become a thin line, "AUTUMN, NOW!"

Cecilia fired on the pillars holding up the driveway entry awning. Autumn blew her wing gusts and flung the resultant debris toward, but not at, the crowd. The protesters backed up in terror. They knew Phantom Task was going to come, but they were hoping, idiotically, it was quiet. As soon as a path was open for Autumn and Chelsea, they broke for it and ran out into the parking lot. Cecilia flew out and fired near the mob to keep them at bay. Sokoto flew out with Madoka and landed behind Autumn and Chelsea and withdrew his wings. Cecilia jumped out and landed on her drones, then jumped off and ran behind the rest of the group.

"Just like old times, eh?!" Sokoto shouted.

"We never ran this much, kid!" Autumn said.

"Hold on a second!" Chelsea got irritated, saber still out, "We're pilots! Why are we running instead of flying?!"

"One, for the intro!" Cecilia stopped dead in her tracks and fired a fully charged shot straight ahead of the group, "Two, THAT!"

Phantom Task looked back at Cecilia with bewilderment, then at the spot where she shot.

"Hey," Chelsea panicked, "That's the Rafale Revive Basic!"

"So?" Sokoto asked.

"SO?!" Chelsea freaked out, "THE SPECIAL FORCES ARE COMING!"

"Spe..." Autumn froze, "I thought those people helped us in Canada..."

"Renegade!" Cecilia walked past them, "Keep hold of demon woman! The rest of you, prepare for battle! Get us out of New York!"

"But what about the other fifteen pilots?!" Autumn wondered.

"They'll be here tomorrow! For now, RUN!" Cecilia fully deployed the Mermaid's Tears and prepared to engage the UN Spec Fo.

Sure enough, the US division of the UN special forces have arrived on scene. Autumn joined Cecilia in the sky and kept the Special Forces at bay while Sokoto and Chelsea continued their escape. The two were more than enough to distract the rest of the special forces, but they couldn't keep the rest from jumping onto the expressway. Sokoto flew up and deployed the rest of the Streamline. Then, he stomped on a car and effectively clogged the remainder of the road.

"Mind telling me what the logic is for interrupting a crucial traffic vessel?!" Chelsea screamed after landing right beside him.

"Just giving them something else to worry about," Sokoto spotted one van that was miraculously unaffected by the sudden crash, "Plus, we need another ride outta here."

"But...but a traffic jam?!" Chelsea stammered as she ran after him, while he was ripping a door open to his least favorite thing in the whole world:

"You just ruined my car, jerk!"

"What is up your fucking dick, asshole?!"

...spoiled white women.

"Yeah, okay..." Sokoto wasted no time in yanking the driver out, "All of you! Out!"

"And who's gonna make us?!" One woman foolishly blurted. To which she, and the rest of her crew, were simply punched out of the van and into the ever growing pile of motors.

Sokoto stuffed Madoka in the back seat and tried to jam his way out of the pile-up, "Little help here, maid woman?!"

"Uh...right," Chelsea jumped in the driver's seat and floored it, taking the van out of the pile up and onto smooth road, "Ok, sooner or later, we'll have to get off the expressway. We'll need to cut off all pursuit when that happens as well."

"Speaking of which, where are Mothim and Ariel?" Sokoto quipped.

Right over them, leading the Special Forces over the expressway, hoping that Sokoto got the message.

"WHY ARE WE FIGHTING OVER THEM?!" Cecilia screamed.

"So that they are held responsible for killing their own citizens!" Autumn said.

"WHAT?!"

"Trust me." Autumn threw a wind blade literally in the Special Forces's faces to get them riled up, "I thought you'd be better than that flea-ridden sleaze ball!"

"We are!" An agent fell for the bait, "Unlike you whores who allowed him to sully your sacred skin!" And she fired her guns on Autumn, determined to hit her at all costs. Without looking around her target.

Autumn was shifting left and right, slowly backing up to the expressway, continually taunting the agents until they could no longer contain their emotions and begin their reckless charge against them. They split to try and take Autumn and Cecilia down at once. Cecilia was still bewildered about the entire situation and just fled the scene, trying to stay close to the concrete in case she finds the renegade. Autumn, on the other hand, was living it up. She treated the traffic jam like a slalom run, weaving in and out of the agents' sight and reveling in each explosion caused. It wasn't long before Sokoto spotted the two escaping the glorious fiery rampage.

"Hey! Over here!" Sokoto shouted, "Jump in!"

Cecilia jumped and withdrew her IS right before she landed and squeezed herself into the back row. Autumn just slid her way in the middle row.

"Kept you waiting, didn't I?" Autumn piped.

"Is this really the time to joke around?!" Cecilia looked behind and ahead repeatedly, "Hey, where's the driver's door?!"

"Old man Troll-Clown yanked it off," Chelsea stopped giving a damn and resigned herself to focus on survival.

"HE WHAT?!" Cecilia freaked.

"Just focus on getting out of here," Chelsea gripped the wheel tightly.

Silvia was nowhere to be seen throughout the trip, because she was soaking in the very real impact of her creation and deployment. She witnessed real people get hurt, real destruction. She knew it would be bad during the rescue operation in Québéc, but that was a small pricking of the skin compared to this. They just ripped I-278 apart. Literally. "Oh my good golly gosh..." she rubbed her head, "If people up north hate the renegade...No, I don't want to think about it..."

Back in the destruction zone, the pilots that failed to kill Phantom Task were beating each other up for it.

"I didn't expect any of you to be suckered in by the worst bait possible," the captain said.

"But they provoked us!" One tried to find some plausible excuse, "They lured us into the expressway and made us-"

"They made you lose your reasoning, that's what they did!" The captain snapped, forcing the team to shut up while she kept talking, "Because you couldn't get over your goddamn jealousy, you took it out on your people, when you had every opportunity to minimize the damage!"

"We're I sorry..."

"You better be," the captain radioed the State Police HQ, "All units, Phantom Task has escaped Staten Island and is headed towards Elizabeth! Converge on 278 and 95 and intercept immediately!"

"Oh, manny bun bun! That was insane!" Sokoto freaked, "Did you see those cars go all like, BOOM! BOOSHCHSHCH! And Autumn was all, NEAOW! WOOSH! BLAM! But then Cece was like, AAAH! GETEMOFFGETEMOFFGETEMO-"

"Yes, thank you, renegade," Cecilia angrily muttered after her rifle socked his seat.

"Ugh," Chelsea honked the horn with her forehead, "Can anything be worse than mood whiplash?..."

"That!" Cecilia pointed to a massive roadblock up ahead.

"OH, COME ON!" Autumn freaked, "YOU'RE TELLING ME WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH CLOGGED CARTERIES THE WHOLE TRIP?!"

"Jump," Chelsea just let go of the wheel and slammed the pedal down so hard, it was stuck there.

"Jump?! Wha-WHERE?!" Cecilia screamed, and then clammed shut when Chelsea jumped out of the car and dove deep into the freeway below. Sokoto and Autumn quickly caught on to that stunt and followed suit.

"You're crazy!" Cecilia still screamed, "What do you hope to accomplish?!" And that's when she saw it. The car was at a high enough speed to crash through the roadblock. She quickly tucked the still unconscious Madoka in her arms and deployed her IS. The oversize and the Absolute Defense enabled both of them to plow through the roadblock without a scratch. Unfortunately, at the cost of several police officers. She flew up and beelined toward the rest of Phantom Task.

"Ok! So, we managed to piss off every dead weight chest woman in the nation!" Sokoto shouted, "What's our next play?!"

"We find a safe place to hide!" Autumn said, "Preferably in a begotten forest or a hut!"

"Are we gonna hijack another car?!" Sokoto spotted a rather nice looking limousine.

"Don't even!" Chelsea snapped, "If we're gonna nab a vehicle, it has to be inconspicuous!"

"Dammit..." disappointed.

"How the hell can he be joking at a time like this?!" Cecilia was listening in on the conversation, with herself muted.

"That's just the way he is," Silvia peek over Cecilia's headband, "Or that could be a defense mechanism..."

"Defense? Against what?"

"Against the growing possibility that we're not going to make IT OUT ALIVE LOOK OUT!" Silvia momentarily took control of the Mermaid's Tears and shove it to the left.

"Yaagh...how are you-" Cecilia was winded before looking ahead, "Oh, fish halibut..."

Sokoto sensed a rapidly-approaching aura and launched an energy blast at it. It was a direct hit that virtually did nothing to the target. He react quickly and blocked the incoming punch, but the arm that was caught revealed a hidden missile and fired off a shot, blowing him back. He recovered and charged forward, but the pilot kept him away by firing off several heat-seeking missiles at him. He was forced to fly around and find a places for those missiles to hit. Until he had a nasty idea. He stopped flying and planted himself on the road, in the face of oncoming traffic. He waited until the missiles were just about to touch him, then launched the Ignition Boost. He narrowly avoided the missiles, and got a hard punch in the pilot's cheek. The missiles exploded and destroyed a big chunk of the freeway.

"Sokoto!" Autumn stopped ahead of him, "What was that?!"

"I dunno," Sokoto took his battle stance, "But I do know there's more coming from up ahead. And they're not gonna let us go without a fight."

"You're damn right, we're not letting you off," the pilot unveiled her twin semi-auto guns, "and the worst part is, you couldn't allow us to squash you the easy way."

Within seconds, the entire group was surrounded by pilots, all with a giant grudge against the renegade.

"Crap," Chelsea muttered, "Gen 3 Cobalt Standard Issue, mass production. We're up against the elite force now."

"Just the way I like it," Sokoto smirked.

"Quite the harem to be lustily obsessed over one man," Autumn provoked everyone.

"And just for that..." the pilot was enraged over how Autumn managed to soil the pride of a woman, "...KILL THEM!"

Cecilia had arrived just in time to see the absolute chaos unfold. Phantom Task moved quickly to avoid the gunfire. Sokoto was the main target, so all eyes were off of Autumn and Chelsea, opening them up to plenty of surprise attacks. To their surprise, their attacks did very, very little in the way of staggering. Whenever a pilot was attacked, they immediately responded with a brutal counter. This caused Autumn to almost lose her wings, and Chelsea to lose her saber, forcing her on the defensive.

"Oh no..." Cecilia was racking her mind over whether to keep hold of Madoka or put her somewhere safe to engage.

"It's ok. I can handle her," Silvia assured her.

"Are you sure?" Cecilia asked.

"Yeah. I studied the Black Knight's system framework. I can take over if it comes to that."

"Ok..." Cecilia put Madoka and Silvia down on the mid rail diving the freeway, "We're counting on you..." She then deployed her rifle and hastily fired a shot at the leader of the pilots. That shot was not only a direct hit; it also took off a huge chunk of shield energy away. The pilot was shocked. For all their armor and power behind their weapons, they thought it would be impossible for a rouge pilot to act so brazenly. All eyes turned on Cecilia.

"You're all weak to energy attacks!" Cecilia boasted, "What are you, Pokémon?!"

That offended all of them, as they were all reminded of the sexualized female characters subjected to demoralization. They all turned their weapons to Cecilia and moved in on her location. None of them saw the drones emerging from behind her. They sallied forward and blasted everything within sight. Most of the pilots took damage, but none were swayed from their target.

"Ok, it's on," Cecilia closed her eyes to steady her mind, then out of nowhere, "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~" she lost it, jumping into the fray and spinning energy bullets around her, giving no regards to her surroundings.

"Uh, I should probably..." Sokoto crept towards the chaos.

"Yeah, you do that," Autumn kept her distance while Chelsea searched for another suitable transport vehicle.

Sokoto leapt high in the sky and fired a Radiant Gallic Grapple at a pilot. He was pulled in, but instead of punching her, he punched the ground with one hand and wrested the pilot out of her IS with the other hand. The attack destroyed the overhead pass and ruined the freeway.

Cecilia was absolutely livid. She and her drones sprayed energy all over the place, and popped quite a many number of holes in all the pilots. Only the captain remained, and they were more than happy to oblige.

Autumn assisted Chelsea in the search for a suitable getaway car, until they found a sturdy "lounge" van. They pulled off all passengers and carried it over to the battle site.

Just in time to see the captain get her metal handed to her by the disgraced IS Representative. The captain lost her temper, "How...you're supposed to be weaker than us...HOW COULD YOU BE INSULTING YOUR OWN PEOPLE?!"

Cecilia lost her temper as well, "As if my words could reach someone so dense."

The captain was on the brink of insanity, as she saw the renegade taking his stance in front of her, and Autumn and Chelsea about to make the escape. She didn't see the fifth one, though. The report said there were five pilots. She looked behind her and found the fifth one, still out cold.

"You will pay for turning your back on the females, you high-humping bitch!" She tossed herself over the brink and blasted towards Madoka.

"No!" Chelsea screamed, "Stop her!"

Autumn, Cecilia, and Sokoto tried to shoot the captain down, but she was too fast for them to stop her from getting to Madoka.

Who has her helmet deployed for some reason. Silvia kept messing with its visuals to wiggle Madoka's head, "Come on! Come on! Wakey-wakey! Eggs and bakey!" Then, she saw the captain honing in on her, with all the glorious fireworks closing in from behind, "AAAAAH! WAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPFLOORITFLOORITOKFLOORIT!" She jammed her finger into the helmet and triggered the Twin Lance's lasers, which blasted the captain right in her face.

Autumn caught up to Silvia, where she witnessed her handiwork. Autumn mouthed, "Whoa...that was insane..."

"What?" Silvia asked, "What was in-GOD-" One look at the captain, and she realized what she did. That laser killed her. She just killed somebody. She just stared at the lifeless captain, then back at Madoka. So many questions invaded her mind. She called out to Sokoto, but what was he doing before he found her? What was Sokoto doing with her body before she came to life? Those people they fought in the compound were paralyzed at best, but this was real. "I...were we-"

"Time to go!" Chelsea interrupted everyone by starting the van up. Sokoto and Cecilia hopped in the back, while Autumn grabbed Madoka and situated them in the middle row. Silvia pondered the potential argument she wanted to have with Sokoto, but decided to go to Chelsea's shoulder to meditate. Once everyone sat down, Chelsea floored it. "Whew...at this rate, we'll be out of New Jersey by dusk," she said in a vain attempt to calm the tensions in the van, "Anyone want to say something before we leave?"

"Yeah, I wanna say something!" Cecilia was still pissed, "A big ol' FUCK YOU to everyone who tried to kill me today! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE, AND YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE, SO FUCK OUTTA MY SIGHT, YOU BITCHY BITCH-ASS BITCH BITCH HOES!"

Awkward silence...

"What?" Cecilia snapped, "Even I have to let off some steam once in a while."

"Oh, shut up..." Madoka slowly came to.

"He-hey, M!" Sokoto glimmered, "You have a good nap?"

"I think so..." Madoka rubbed her head, "Chifuyu could pack quite a punch..."

"Chiffff..." Cecilia suddenly felt a chill down her spine, "Oh no..."

"What is it?" Autumn asked, "Who said what to who?"

"Chifuyu said to us...Consider that a small teaser of what's to come, should you decide to venture further beyond the state's borders..."

Another onset of silence, this time in deep thought, as they were all trying to conjure up every single possible scenario they'll encounter, from protests to assassins, to possibly a nonstop pursuit across the continent that will only end if they die. Only three of the six have experience being fugitives. The rest have yet to learn of the terrible price that comes with opening their eyes to the truth.

And the first payment has come due, in the form of an encrypted call from Silvia, "EEP! We got a call!"

"From who?..." Madoka asked nervously.

"Do we dare?..." Chelsea questioned.

"Uh..." Silvia racked her mind before deciding to allow the call to go through. The others braced themselves as the connection was established.

An all-too-familiar voice sounded through, "Did you enjoy my welcome gifts?"

No one had the guts to respond.

"Oh, lighten up!" Chifuyu continued, "You can relax! Unless you've somehow found a way to Philadelphia?..."

"*GULP*" Cecilia panicked.

"Oh, no..." Chifuyu continued, "You don't know what you've done. You should've just given up. You've got the most precious cargo in all the world. You should've just given it to us. Now, you've brought the wrath of Class 4 upon you. And we're coming for you."

"PAGAN!" Sokoto, out of nowhere, "YOU'RE BRINGING AN ARMY OF PAGANS! DEMON BANSHEE PAGAN!"

"You have no idea just how demon banshee pagan I can be..."

Connection terminated.

"Oh, Christ, what's going to happen to us?" Autumn was genuinely worried.

"We're gonna survive," Sokoto reassured them, "No matter what they throw at us, we can take it."

"That's not what I'm worried about..." Autumn said.

"Then, what is it?" Madoka asked, "The hell are you on about?"

"Will we still be ourselves when the final showdown comes?"

That got everyone thinking. Autumn and Madoka have undergone radical interpersonal changes since coming across the renegade. Chelsea and Cecilia have come under the influence since the Canada rescue operation. Sokoto...barely changed.

"What?"

"Uh...nothing..." Cecilia turned away.

"Out with it, Cece," Silvia insisted.

"No, I can't..." Cecilia buried herself in her seat.

"What's with her?" Madoka reached over and tried to pluck her drills, but was stopped by Sokoto AND Autumn, "Hey! What's with you?!"

"I just realized..." Sokoto quickly came up with an excuse, "...we all need rest. Seriously, you give her a haircut now, we ain't gonna sleep for the next two months."

"Seriously? Is he really gonna-"

"We're gonna need it, too," Autumn convinced her, "We'll take turns driving until we find a place to hideout."

"Uh...ugh, fine..." Madoka relented and conked herself out to avoid having to deal with the unease of the van.

"Let me know when you need to sleep," Autumn tucked herself in.

"Right..." Chelsea and Silvia just kept their eyes on the road.


	3. TONE IT DOWN ALREADY!

_Part 3: TONE IT DOWN ALREADY!_

 **-CAMP HEBRON, DAUPHIN COUNTY; 18:42-**

Somehow, Phantom Task made it all the way to the interior of Pennsylvania undetected. Chelsea had it in mind to find a good place with barely anyone working, so she relied on Silvia to navigate the team to such a place. Thankfully, they found an abandoned camp to nest for the night. Once she stopped near a table, Silvia turned the car off and opened the auto doors. "Okay, everyone," Chelsea woke them up, "We'll rest here until we decide our next move..."

Everyone woke up groggy. "Don't patronize me, woman..." Cecilia groaned.

"You patronized yourself..." Madoka grunted, trying to get Autumn off her legs.

Sokoto yawned and stretched his body, unknowingly planting a fist and a foot on Cecilia's and Autumn's faces. Chelsea and Silvia barely managed to escape the ensuing chaos.

Fifteen minutes later...

"Can't we go just one day without something repeatedly screwing our psyches like a two-dollar whore?!" Chelsea screamed at all of them.

"Nope!" Sokoto cheerfully said, "We're on the run, remember?"

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHY YOU SHOULD TONE IT DOWN ALREADY!" Chelsea bellowed, then calmed herself down, "Look, we need to wait until things settle down before we start to cause ruckus again. If we can find out the extent of the damage we caused, we can form a plan that won't get us killed."

"But how?" Madoka asked, "If we link up anywhere, we'll be discovered within a heartbeat."

"Then, I guess we'll just have to rely on our instincts..." Autumn sur-

"This is the fishing rod?..." Cecilia was questioning the giant pole she had.

"Or a transfer basket between gathering points," Sokoto was juggling two baskets.

"DON'T YOU DARE IGNORE ME, YOU BEGOTTEN ANUS SCUM!" Chelsea gave up and hibernated in the van.

Thirty minutes later, everyone was off exploring the camp. Madoka and Autumn used the time allotted to gather firewood and food, while Cecilia and Sokoto were off gathering random materials to stash in the trunk. Sokoto was scouring the ground for anything worth using as a mudball when he stumbled across a triangular building.

"Whoa...what happened to it?..." Sokoto mumbled.

"Don't know..." Silvia fizzled to his shoulder using one of the few remaining power lines, "But from the looks of it, it's been ransacked."

"How can you tell?"

"Well, if you go around back..." they went to the rear of the building and found a big gaping hole that provided a picture of the carnage that wrecked the halls. Pews chopped in half, pulpits thrown haphazardly, windows and walls cracked, and a gigantic cross that apparently penetrated the roof and stuck the landing.

"Yeah...ransacked...got it..." Sokoto stepped in to survey the damage. He crossed the platform and got to the center, where the cross was stuck in the ground, and not five feet from it did he begin to have memories of crashing a prayer service five years ago, to hilarious results. The group leaders actually thought he was with the elementary group and shoehorned him into an egg-in-the-face competition, where each correct verse gave you an egg to throw at whoever you wanted. Needless to say, things got out of hand, and escalated into an egg-fight. For reasons still unknown they kept him for the rest of the camp, then brought him back to their church, where he ducked out before the leaders figured out what really happened.

"Oh no..." Sokoto decided to call someone else to the service, "Hey, Cecilia! Come check this out!"

Cecilia was nearby making a clothesline, "Huh? Hey, what'd you find?" Once she stepped in, however, "HUH?!" She swore she went to Hell, because she visualized an angel of death standing before her, emitting a fiery aura that surrounded the cross, "PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON ME! ID NEVER MEANT ALL THOSE THINGS I SAID I WAS FAR TOO INTO MY ARROGANCE I BEG YOUR FORGIVE-"

"JUDGEMENT HAS ALREADY BEEN PASSED," Sokoto and Silvia said in their unified, distorted voice, "YOUR SOUL MUST BE CLEANSED."

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~" Cecilia nearly fainted before seeing Sokoto throw water on the fire and withdrew his IS.

"BAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!" Sokoto lost it, "We got you good, cross nut!"

"You can't go wrong with manipulating the-" Silvia was interrupted by a charged laser, "-nuts..."

"HOW...DARE...YOU..." Cecilia lost it with her rifle, "I KILL YOU!" She was about to fire, but then she took one look at the giant cross, which she immediately recognized as the pillar acting as a beacon of light for the summer camp she attended twice, once when she was 13, and again before her final year at the Academy, "Oh my...what...happened?..."

"Happened to what?" Sokoto asked.

"This..." Cecilia absorbed everything as she walked further into the sanctuary, "This place, it's supposed to be a haven for-WOO!" She tripped over... "Oww...*GULP*" ...a Bible, clearly torn in half, "Uh...someone wanna explain to me what the heck is going on?..."

"Well.." Sokoto said, "We know this place was ransacked from the outside and inside, so there had to have been some haters disguised as lovers..."

"Ransacked?!" Cecilia was not told any of this, "So then...this whole camp..."

"Oh, it's worse than that," Silvia pulled up several archived articles.

"Wait, how are you doing that? And...won't we get caught?!"

"Relax. These are landline connections. Easily manipulated." During the brief kerfuffle, Silvia snuck out of the church to attach herself from one of the few transformers to give her a connection strong enough to get what she needed and come right back without being detected. "Oh...uh, Cece, remember that part about the debate and the election?"

"Yeah..."

"Well," Silvia wished she hadn't, "This was discussed in that debate."

Holographic images projected from Sokoto's bracelet. Images depicting angry mobs of women, and images depicting angry mobs of men. Slander graffitied on numerous walls and tables, MANSPLAINER, SLUT, MAKE YOURSELF A SANDWICH, FHRITP, and that's just nice ones. Then, more images of people throwing flamings alcohol bottles and chairs into the window, wrecking the walls of many cabins and sanctuaries. One very vulgar image depicted a woman throwing a used tampon in the pool used for baptism. Many more images depicted people burning everything, resulting in a mass arrest, as well as the camp's shutdown. Through these digital holographic images, Sokoto and Cecilia were finally able to understand what happened.

"So, the people that dunked me in that pool..." Sokoto whispered, "Were they..."

"Yeah," Silvia responded, "about fifteen months ago-"

"Don't say it..." Cecilia shot a look at him.

Sokoto ran back to the baptism pool and removed the wood covering the bottom of the pool. Cecilia walked to the cross and examined the back of its arms.

Two words, scribbled angrily in red paint:

HYPOCRITE HUSSIES

Cecilia backed away in horror. Silvia fizzled to her shoulder. "What... happened here?..." she just gasped in disbelief, "Why was no one told of this?..."

"They were..." Silvia said, "But everyone just called it a scare tactic..."

Sokoto just stared in awe. He experienced something like this throughout his travels, but he never came across something this bad. Just how deep a hole was the world in? He decided to investigate the rest of the camp to get the full picture. He stepped outside and deployed his legs and arms, "Hey, Sil! I'm borrowing these for a bit!"

"No, don't-" Too late. He dashed off into the wilderness, "...oh...why me?..."

"Just leave him be," Cecilia said, "Let's just see if dinner's ready..."

"Yeah..." Silvia sat on Cecilia's head as they made their way to the campsite.

"Say, what did he mean by, "dunk him in the pool"?"

"Oh...he's been here before. But the leaders here confused him for a guy that needed baptism and pulled him in."

"WHAT?!" Cecilia stared at the pool, then back at Silvia, "Well, he's doing a hell of a job spreading the revelation..."

Madoka and Autumn were off gathering food and firewood, when they each came across a pile of debris with some choice markings on them. They examined the pile further and found several pieces of clothing, belongings, and treasures. Autumn started to question this camp's original purpose, while Madoka just grabbed all she could find. Then, she saw Sokoto dash across the lake, jump up, and dive right in to see what he could find. Sokoto had to deploy the body armor and goggles to get a clear view and pull himself deeper in the lake. And what he saw could be best described as a potential real estate opportunity for Jason Voorhees and his mother to make a killer investment on.

 **-21:33-**

"Like, hundreds of hundreds of bones just piled up on the floor of the lake," And he had no problem turning this into scary story night, "and there were fish still gnawing on their eyeholes. And if that wasn't bad enough, there was people's blood on some of the wood we found. Like, this was murder on a pretty nasty scale. This being a religious camp and all, you gotta expect some higher entity getting absolutely pissed."

Cecilia, Chelsea, and Autumn all huddled together trying to ward off any resulting evil from storytime, while Madoka and Silvia kept munching on her food, eagerly awaiting the punchline.

"And if I know ghosts like I think I do..." Sokoto mused, "If Aokigahara is anything to go by, I'll bet there are spirits still waiting to get their fill, since they so clearly died before their appointed time." Stare at Madoka's shoulder...

"What?" Madoka asked before connecting that stare to his story. She turned around and looked at the mass of trees, thinking that someone was watching their every move.

No one dared to make a sound, except for Sokoto, who took this moment of distraction to sneak up behind the three scaredy-mice, deploy his headgear and wings without making a sound, and shout with a distorted voice, "INTRUDER!"

Chelsea, Cecilia, and Autumn freaked and tried to whack the entity with giant logs.

"Hey, take it easy!" Sokoto retracted his IS and avoided the heavy attacks, "It's just me!"

"The hell kind of mood whiplash are you trying to bring upon us?!" Cecilia griped.

Sokoto laughed and crossed his arms, "It's all in the name of good spirit, af-"

"DON'T SAY SPIRIT!" Chelsea punched him into the lake.

"AAAAAH! What'd you do that for?!" Cecilia nagged on her.

"Oh, shit..." Chelsea prepared for the worst. She looked at the spot where he sunk. He rose from the surface, color scheme changed to putrid olive, with a skull for a helmet, and someone's femur for a sword. "YAAAAAAAAAAAA~" Chelsea screamed when he rushed towards her and stopped short of the bone touching her throat.

"That wasn't very nice..." Sokoto said. When he touched the bone to Chelsea's neck, she fainted and slipped into slumber.

"Good God, man..." Autumn muttered.

"God, indeed," Madoka said, "I still can't wrap my head around why this camp suffered like that."

"I have an idea..." Cecilia thought, "I remember a certain verse in the book of Galatians:

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

"So, your point?" Madoka asked.

"So...these people may have been killed because of their equal treatment toward men and women," Autumn guessed.

"I'm afraid so..." Silvia confirmed, "They didn't take too kindly to the fact that God called his people to reach all people, regardless of gender."

"So, that's why this camp became just a rotten landfill?" Madoka surveyed the rest of the lake.

"Yeah. There have been attempts to cover it up, but after the truth came out, they tried to pin the blame on another religious group," Silvia ran through countless articles, "And thus started a major debate about the limitations of what citizens here call the First Amendment."

"The heck is that?" Sokoto asked.

"In layman's terms, you can say whatever you want, and the federal government can't do jack-squat," Silvia turned to a rare article concerning the overall impact of the IS, "Or, at least, that's what I think it's supposed to be..."

"Don't tell me..." Cecilia quickly skimmed over the article's main points, "They turned the IS into a sociopolitical tool..."

"Yes, they did," Silvia said, "And not just here, it's everywhere. Since only women can operate an IS, women tried to bend society to their will. Too quickly. Conflicts erupted on a small scale, easily shunted by public opinion, and the fact that the fate of the world was literally in the palm of the females. It went on like this until the first male pilot emerged. Hence why everyone in the entire world freaked out whenever they see someone with a flat chest and a bulging crotch riding around in a skimpy battle suit."

"Was that last part really necessary?" Autumn whined.

"When you consider what we're up against," Silvia explained, "any form of morale-boosting humor is welcome."

"But that was just confusing at best..."

"Well, it didn't change my feelings one bit," Sokoto said, "It only added on to my laundry list."

"Huh?" Madodka couldn't believe what she just heard. The fact that Sokoto was staring Lady Death in the soul and still no change in his eyes, "Are you even listening to all this?!"

"Well, yeah. And what I got from all this is, not only do we have to find out what happened to Claire and Charlie, we need to find out who twisted the IS into something it wasn't meant to be and how."

"Oh my god..." Cecilia rubbed her head, "Are you guys even Phantom Task anymore? Look at us! We're just a bunch of runaways! We're constantly scatterbrained, walking towards Buckingham Palace with a giant cactus lodged up our backsides and nary a clue what we're even doing out here!"

"So, your point?" Autumn tossed in some wood and decided to engage Cecilia in a verbal battle/

"So, can we start thinking about how to survive, instead of just causing mayhem every step of the way? So we don't get killed?!"

"And what have you been doing exactly?"

"What?"

"Ever since we roped you into our little...clique, you've had your share in public chaos, with the latest being that shot out of the hotel."

"Well...that was just to make sure we don't die."

"Survival, huh? So far, you've literally said you'll join us, and you shot that one pilot full of energy. Not to mention that one scuffle with your maid at that one airport..."

"That has nothing to do with you!"

"Then, why did you leave?"

"Well...ugh..."

"Wow... that's rough," Madoka commented. She turned to Sokoto, who was sifting through the debris from a destroyed cabin.

"Yep...thought so," he said as he rummaged through wood, blooded metal, and numerous other garbage, when Silvia fizzled behind him, "Oh, hey! Come to do a little treasure hunting?"

"Well, more like intel gathering," Silvia said. She gave him a minute to find something worth keeping before she came out with it, "How many did you kill?"

"Huh?" Sokoto blinked his eyes, "Well, that came outta nowhere. I guess...a lot."

"What do you mean, a lot?"

"Well, a lot of stuff happened. People harassing people, families getting torn apart...I just couldn't do nothing. It wouldn't be proper."

Silvia got a little worried. How on earth could he just say that so nonchalantly, when he was on the frontlines of these problems? "What exactly happened before I was awakened?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well... I saw that Japan got split in three. And that you are wanted by almost half the world. So, what exactly were you doing before Canada?"

Sokoto stopped what he was doing and sat down. Then, he told his story, "Before I became the renegade, and the bane of all existence, I was running around the world, living life with the sanity of a rocket. I didn't stay in one place because there was a ton of things to do. So, I talked to everyone, did everything."

"And if you came across someone that, say, wanted to dominate everyone they saw?..."

"Oh, I'd prank the hell out of them!"

"Was it prank? Or...kill?"

"Depends on the person."

"Oh man, you definitely can't do that, onii-chan!"

"What? What's the problem?"

"What's the problem?!" Silvia freaked, "I get that people do bad things, but not even they deserve to die! Or see their friends die!"

"I thought that at some point, but let's be real. Messages of peace and love come off as cliche, nowadays. They hear that blah, and it just washes over them like a gentle morning breeze against a mountain. They don't hear it because they've heard to too much to the point of numbness."

"But that doesn't mean that they won't listen, does it? Do people tone out that easily?"

"All too often. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that subtlety only affects so many people, even if it's done correctly. If you wanna truly change people's minds, it's gotta be done through shock and awe. Anything else, and they'll give you the nasty."

"What..." Silvia just got an earful. She had many questions, not just about Sokoto's true purpose in life, but of humanity as well. Questions she wanted to ignore as she knew they were irrelevant to the tasks at hand, but couldn't because holding off on the questions would no doubt come back to bite their noses off. "Man, what do I do?"

"The only thing we can do," Sokoto stood up and decided to continue exploring the camp for...ahem, any possible signs of a haunting, "One thing at a time."

Silvia followed Sokoto along the trail and search for anything worth a distraction.

Back at the lake, Madoka found Cecilia at a dock, staring at the center. Madoka thought to walk away, but some unknown corner of her heart suddenly took over her conscience, drawing her to Cecilia's side and sitting down mere inches from her hair. She didn't know what to say to someone who the renegade himself wooed over to their side. She initially thought of just kicking her over, but then she was reminded of a certain...three-way she took part in. She had no choice now. If she wanted to open up to Sokoto, THE RIGHT WAY, this was her best chance to practice. She swallowed her pride and muttered, "So, what's it to you?"

Like a classic social dumbass.

"Nothing you could understand..." was what Cecilia said.

Madoka was tempted to take that as an insult, but quickly restrained herself, "Get the wind knocked outta you, huh?"

"Maybe..."

Madoka was losing patience, so she went out with it, "Look, I don't know what you're really up to, but you can just drop the act."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what do you see in Sokoto?"

Cecilia moved her head up a bit and stared at the mist clouding the stars, "Just for a split second, I saw into those eyes...they reminded me of him..."

Uh-oh...Madoka had that same thought. She can't let Cecilia know. "Really? The fate of our world hangs in the balance, and you bargain for one pipsqueak?"

"That's not it..." Cecilia got agitated and stood up, staring down the center of the lake, "When I was with Ichika, I gave him a part of myself...I was reminded of him by the renegade, that's all. He still has a part of me with him. I just want to know if he'll give it back."

"Oh?" Madoka was genuinely curious, "I thought you still had a thing for him."

"I could say the same for you."

"What would I do with you?"

"Not be such a prick, for once."

"That ain't gonna happen," Madoka still kept talking, determined to get to the bottom of Cecilia's sudden mood swing, "So, what got you?"

"Oh, nothing..." Cecilia thought out loud, "Just rethinking why I went out of my way to get something that was never going to be mine...That one person who leads you on the wildest adventures and then suddenly snaps at the very last minute...I wouldn't mind it so much were it not for the seething resemblance your man had with that...the man who shanked your woman..."

On the outside, Madoka was visibly unmoved. But on the inside, she knew that they were both being tested. Madoka could tell that Cecilia cleaned up her mind, but the soul...heart...spi-WHATEVER...the way forward was not only missing a few lights, it had no guideposts whatsoever. In a way, Madoka was staring down her past self, the pivotal moment that turned her into Phantom Task's deadliest assassin.

Normally, this would be nostalgic to Madoka, but no...she was scared. Staring at essentially a younger version of herself, what was she supposed to do? If she lets Cecilia go to full on nut-mode, she'll definitely be on everyone's radar. But considering Madoka's relationship with Sokoto, and the charm he seemingly placed on Cecilia, this could go deadly. Like, two yandere girls in a harem deadly. However, if she stops Cecilia from going down that route...that would mean letting go. Letting go of Ichika, of Chifuyu, and...also something she doesn't want to do.

"Oh, great...caught between two invulnerable things ramming my gut..." Madoka muttered.

"You say something?" Cecilia turned her head back.

"Is it really worth it?" Madoka asked, "I'm obsessed over Chifuyu because of something she took from me...is it the same for you?"

"Of course. What else could it be?"

"I mean, Ichika can be a bit dull, but he has to have somebody spell it out for him. That's just the kind of person he is. If I wanted to kill him, I would've shot every single bullet I had, not drag it out with gas and traps. Just like how you should've told him outright that you wanted him to choose you, not drag it out with a harem."

"But why didn't he say anything? Is he really that thick-headed, or just a coward?"

Sharp departure from just ONE MONTH AGO! Yikes...nearly word for word what she originally thought of Ichika before the renegade happened. Madoka has to stop Cecilia from going down her route, if only to save her own sanity.

Speaking of sanity, where's Autumn gone?

She somehow managed to climb atop the giant church and not break a hole in its ceiling. She had to do a lot of thinking about how she would proceed deeper into the "Great American Urban Wilderness". If that was even possible. Within just a few hours time, they'll be continually haunted by something worse than ghosts. Unlike Camp Hebron, Phantom Task failed to kill their targets. Plus, their previous two exposés were very fresh in their minds. "Ugh...what would Squall do?..." she thought out loud. And that was when a thought occurred to her. There's the obvious yet ominous warning from Forte. Sokoto must have ran into her on the way to rescue them. He told Autumn that Forte tried to sway him away from the mission, rather pathetically. They don't know when she'll come. They don't know when Ichika will attack. They don't know what the public will do to them should they come into sight. And worst of all, they don't know what Sokoto would do. Sokoto inherited Squall's will. And yet Sokoto kept that one woman who got into some major shit in his thoughts, resulting in that rescue operation. Even with all those other people who were doing everything they could to make sure he never succeeded. And the one thing keeping him going was the need for redemption. Not for him, but for Phantom Task. Why was he so attached to Phantom Task now? Because Squall captained it? Somehow, they really felt for each other. And he managed to change her heart. Imagine what he could do to them!

"Great...we're gonna have to wing it...wing every fucking thing..." Autumn rubbed her eyes, horrified at the truth. How Phantom Task was reduced to just a bunch of ragtag vigilantes, they're not even qualified to be vigilantes, was painfully obvious. "Oh, what I would give to take that back...but I can't. I gotta act as the mom just to keep everyone together. If that doesn't work..." Then, she looked at her...children.

Sokoto and Silvia were having a discussion about the will of humanity while ghost hunting. Madoka and Cecilia were having a conversation about whether to resume hostile relations with Ichika, with Madoka getting a tad bit visibly disturbed over what she was hearing.

"Uh-huh...family my ass," Autumn slid off the roof and just walked down the dirt road, slowly formulating a plan to keep them under control. In her mind, she prepared herself for the worst, planning on all of them getting separated, but causing enough distractions to regroup. During their travels, they would gather intel from anyone with a stick up their ass. Given the volatile political atmosphere, someone was bound to crack. If there would be chaos, they'd have to use it for cover. If things were tense, they had to snap nerves. "Whew...gonna be a long trip..." she muttered as she made her way back to the van, fully prepared to dive back into the sadistic psychopathic self she hid away. And to bring it out from the others as well.


	4. Pacebreaker

_Part 4: Pacebreaker_

 **-CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK COUNTY; 08:13, ELEVEN DAYS TO ELECTION-**

Chifuyu was looking at her cellphone, seeing the damage that Phantom Task wrought. The entire state of New Jersey was on high alert, and already the Army has received orders to deploy domestic troops throughout the New England region. "This guy..." she was thinking about how the renegade was able to partially deploy without making a sound. No indication of whether he did anything during that brief scuffle. He didn't even try to kill her. Comparing that to this incident was a night versus day similarity. There was another side to the story she had to uncover. And, of course, there was the obligatory morning news rant. She pulled up a clip about the giant rakasak,

"Have we learned anything about this new team Phantom Task?"

"In terms of damage and origin of ISs, no, but we have been able to get a body count. A total of 30 women have been killed, and just 7 injured. It seems as though the renegade has been trying to lead a femicide, it worked in Japan, but it has not reached its full capacity in North America just yet."

Cut to another news segment-

"These allegations are false. They have not been confirmed. They will never be confirmed. Whatever they're saying about prison camps and enslavement is false, and they are the ones who need to be detained and questioned to the highest level."

"What about the videos of the male prison camps in Japan?"

"All fake. They were digitally created and edited-"

"You seriously don't think we'll believe that?!"

"Oh my god, will you please shut up about breasts versus pecs?..." Chifuyu stuffed her cellphone in the fountain beside her. She was about to go on another tirade, when a sorely missed face arrived on scene.

"Are you ok?" Ichika asked.

"*Sigh...* sort of," Chifuyu mumbled, "I just found out that men are an endangered species..."

"That's..." Ichika thought,"...entirely expected..."

"Of course it is," Laura suddenly appeared behind him, "What else would you expect when you disregard the feelings of your other friends?"

"Oh goody..." Chifuyu facepalmed.

"I told you, I considered all of your feelings," Ichika engaged in a verbal battle with Laura.

"If you truly considered all our feelings, you would have never chosen that brood."

"Are you saying that I should disregard my feelings?"

"I am saying that you should have disregarded our negative qualities!"

"Wait, so you're saying that feelings have nothing to do with love?"

"You should have been open to my feelings!"

"But I remind you of Chifuyu! That's the basis of your feelings!"

"How dare you! You don't even know my feelings!"

"Well, that's because you're never clear on them! And, hi! Shouldn't it be mutual? Shouldn't you consider my feelings as well?"

"I do! Such as how much you care about me!"

"And?"

"And...and...uhhhh..."

"And the winner by TKO..." Chifuyu said.

"You stay out of this!" Laura snapped at Chifuyu, "If you had only given me your blessing when I demanded it, I wouldn't have to resort to this!"

"Ahem..." Chifuyu meekly pointed at the group of people beside her, who heard every single word of outburst that Laura so passionately vocalized.

"And that, folks, is why I avoid Germany like the plague," one of the bystanders said to her friends.

"Grr..." Laura was had.

"This is getting old," Kanzashi suddenly appeared, "Can't we go one day without something happening to us?"

"Whoa...were you able to get here by yourself?" Ichika asked.

"Dunno...my sister is quite crafty. Is anyone else coming?"

"Yeah," Chifuyu checked her watch, "They should be here now."

Just then, Houki had arrived with Honne Nohotoke. And quite a few elite pilots.

"Whoa..." Kanzashi whispered.

"Sorry we ran late," Houki said, "It was a long meeting."

"As long as we have the entire group ready, that's all that matters," Chifuyu stretched, relieved to have moved on.

"ORIMURA SENSEI!" Dammit.

"ACK!" Chifuyu was tackled, "Ggg...good to see you too, Nohotoke..."

"I know! I thought I'd never be called out here to help, but here I am!"

"Reunions later!" Chifuyu pushes her off, "So, Houki. These are the rest of the crew?"

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Orimura," one of the pilots approached her, "You remember me, right?"

"Of course, Tina." Dammit!

"Sorry we look like this, but the call was so sudden, we had almost no time to prepare."

"You can prepare on the way. So, why don't you introduce me to the others."

"Right, then," Tina said, "Why don't we all get acquainted while we're at it?"

"Are you sure?" Ichika asked.

"Oh, don't be so shy!" Tina grabbed him, and Laura, and Kanzashi, "We all need to gather some chemistry if we want to take down the renegade!"

"But I'm married!" Ichika said.

"I don't think that will matter," Tina rushed them all into the group.

Chifuyu was just speechless, "Oh, it never ends." DAMMIT!

After the meet and greet, Chifuyu quickly roped everyone in and briefed them on the situation. But first...

"Before we begin, I'd like to say something about relationship goals. Stow them. We're not in high school anymore, so I expect nothing less than professionalism towards your peers."

"Hear that?" Laura muttered, "She said to stow it."

"You stow it," Tina shot back.

"And a word about the upcoming wedding," Chifuyu really wanted to say this, "It stays. Ichika and Houki have already made their decision, by their own free will. Does anyone have a problem with that?" No one moved. No one said a word. But Chifuyu knew better, as she could tell right from the start that there would be animosity towards Houki, so this was the perfect opportunity to try and beat some sense into her subordinates the way she never could when they were her students. "If you do have a problem, please leave now and go to the renegade's side. I don't mind you saying whatever you want. However, I do mind if there's even a scent of forcing yourself upon others. If that's what you think you will end up doing, then leave now." No one moved. No one said a word. But Chifuyu would make them say something, "Then, that means you're all subject to my punishment should you attempt to cross me." Death glare at Laura, "And demanding someone to change their heart to perfectly align with your selfish needs is an easy way to cross me."

All of a sudden, Class 4 felt a presence emit from Chifuyu, dig into their skin, and wrap its prickly fingers around their spines. Laura felt someone rip it out.

"So not a word about anyone's personal lives," the mysterious presence growled, "Am I clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!" They all yelled.

"Whew..." Chifuyu returned to her normal commanding demeanor, which caused the presence to dissipate, "Now then, everyone gather round."

Everyone struggled to catch their breaths as they saw the team leader give the rundown.

"Ok, so I said fifteen of us will be here," Chifuyu said as she displayed a projection of various maps of urban areas, "but in reality, we're not the only ones on the hunt. Xingjia, as I understand, is wandering the world looking for some other cause, or soldiers, so once she hears word of the renegade's latest stunt, she'll definitely enter via LAX Airport within a few days. Lingyin has told me that she sent the Golden Dragon squad yesterday, so expect a run in, but do not engage with them. The UN branch in the US has already deployed throughout New England. The US Armed Forces are likely patrolling major cities, given Phantom Task's latest tactic of attacking the people directly. And we can expect some scouring in the suburbs, but almost no one would think to check the rural areas. That will be our station. For the sake of evenness, we will do this in teams of three. Each of us will remain in a region until we have confirmed from all sources the location of the renegade. Until then, stay with your team at all costs. Shut off all open connections to prevent anyone outside Class 4 from accessing your data. But keep your private channels on at all times. I'll go into the populated areas and scour for any intel. The rest of you, keep a low profile. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," they all said.

"We'll switch team members when we're in a tough spot, or when we move out of a region," Chifuyu said, "For now, I'm gonna match everyone by skill, designating a team leader. The teams will be as follows-

Ichika Orimura, Laura Bodewig, Tina Hamilton

Houki Shinonono, Honne Nohotoke, Gina Nali

Aneta Rebane, Tereza Pokorny, Aneta Luik

Kristina Tamm, Karolina Juhasz, Laura Szucs

Kanzashi Sarashiki, Anna Parn, Katherine Pokorny

Everyone group up now."

"Right..." Ichika muttered, "Yet another inevitable series of unfortunate events." GODDAMMIT! What kind of matchup is that?! Possibly the two most blood thirsty girls in CLASS, now he has to- "May I say something?"

"Let's just move on," Laura didn't bat an eye. She just walked over to a tree and leaned over, apparently brooding.

"Don't worry about her," Tina snuck up behind him, "She's just latched on to her emotions is all."

"I know," Ichika said, "But how am I supposed to teach her if she doesn't want to be tahaaaaaaa..." He was taken aback by Tina's suddenly loosely buttoned shirt. Her physique has not changed since their school days. If anything, it got tighter! What has she been doing?! "Please do something about that shirt..."

"What, too risque?" Tina twirled around a bit.

"Y'know what, I think I'm gonna go console Houki a bit." Ichika quickly removed himself from the danger zone.

And almost all the girls saw that. They just saw a man successfully resist a woman's subtle advances. And many of them weren't having it, primarily because of the confirmed wedding. Even now, some women feel jealousy because they wanted to have a piece of the male pilot who defended his country from certain destruction. This could only be good news.

"Why did he pick her?" Laura angrily asked.

"Mostly because they got the childhood friend thing going on," Tina said.

"Ugh. Gross."

"See the bride to be?" Tina pointed to Houki and chika hugging each other.

"Yep."

Tina just shot Laura a wink and walked away, making Laura think of a scheme that she and Tina can work together to pull to get him away from that wedding.

But Chifuyu kept a small eye on that whole scene, "Uh-huh. It's punishment time. Ichika! A moment please!"

"Oh!" Ichika heard and ran towards, "I'll see you soon, honey!"

"I'll wait for you!" Houki called back before turning to her team to discuss a strategy.

Ichika got within five feet of Chifuyu before they connected on the same thought, "It's Laura and Tina, isn't it?"

"Yep," Chifuyu said, "This will be a test of willpower and mental fortitude., two qualities which are absolutely vital to being a good husband."

"Yeah, I get your drift. But...what if I can't endure it any longer?"

"In what way?"

"Well...the private way...and the angry way."

"Hmm..." Chifuyu pretended to have a moment before saying, "Last time you did that, Laura had to go to the doctor just to make sure you didn't tear her vagina in half, even after you went easy on her. So, that could be something."

"Yikes," Ichika cringed. He remembered being too drunk to act rationally. Could it be a weapon if he was in complete control?

"Yet, understandably necessary. In both cases, it's up to you to discipline them. I'm authorizing use of deadly force."

"Even the Reiraku Byakuya?"

"Especially the Reiraku Byakuya."

"Ok. Ok."

"Well, best of luck, little bro."

"Been a while since you called me that!"

Tina and Laura listened in on every word of that exchange. They were worried about their plans crumbling before the mission. If they thought Chifuyu was scary, Ichika was just given permission to kill them if they tempted him! But there was no way he would do that. Right?

"Is he still a dunderhead?" Tina asked.

"I don't know," Laura said, "I haven't seen him enough times to assess him."

"Oh, you naive, little rabbit," Tina patted Laura on the forehead, "You've been through countless life and death battles, but you've received the wrong intel."

"I shouldn't have trusted that manga, that much I've figured out."

"Not to worry!" Tina cheerfully said, "I'll teach you how to get the man you want, the right way!"

"Uhhh..."

"Shh! Here he comes!" Tina stood up and dusted herself off to prepare for Ichika's arrival, "So, what did she say?"

"Not much," Ichika scratched his head, "She just said not to cause a ruckus, until we encounter the enemy."

"Aww, poo," Tina pouted, "I really wanted to see the new pilots. Oh, well! Nothing can be done about that!" And she trotted off into the park.

"Uh, hey! Where're you going?!" Ichika ran after her.

Houki saw the whole scene unfold, "Ugh. There he goes again."

"What's he doing again?" Honna asked.

"Being the absolute dunderhead he always was. I thought he'd learned at least a little."

"Well, what did you expect?" Gina suddenly blurted out, "Guess he wasn't taught some lessons about women."

"Ok, that's for a good reason," Houki said worriedly, "If he knew those things, then he'd self-destruct!"

"Doesn't mean that they won't teach him," Gina looked on as the trio scattered across a flower bed, "Either way, he'd better watch out."

"Why?"

"If they don't break him, I will," Gina narrowed her eyes.

"Is she jealous or angry?" Honne cowered behind Houki.

"I honestly can't tell the difference..." Houki whispered.

Kanzashi watched the spectacle unfold. "Why?...I thought we were over this..."

"What'd you expect?" Anna said while fine tuning her IS, "A man and woman came to a consensus over something vital. That's not something the world willingly forgives."

"Alright," Katherine said, "Let's just wait for the switch off to get any beef with him. For now, I'd like to get this over with so we don't have to drag this out any longer than necessary."

"Ok, everyone! Gather round!" Chifuyu called everyone to the fountain. Once the teams gathered, she made it clear their first move. "Since Phantom Task hasn't been sighted beyond the New England region, It's safe to say he hasn't moved too far beyond. So, we're going to make a statement. Everyone will fly off over the sky, into the East South Central Division. From there, Ichika and Kanzashi's teams will descend into Texas/Arkansas, and Houki and Aneta's team will descend into Alabama/Tennessee. Kanzashi's team and I will go into Florida/West Virginia. Rendezvous with your partner teams in the middle of your division in one week. Clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," they all answered.

"Good. And remember: don't make any noise until they make noise," Chifuyu began charging power for her IS, "SET!"

On cue, all fifteen pilots fully deployed their ISs. Everyone was ready for battle. Ichika and Houki shared one last longing stare before refocusing on the objective. Tina, Laura, Gina, and three others eyes their lines with contempt.

"Do be on your best behavior, will you?" Chifuyu suddenly hit those pilots' private channels. They were reminded who was in charge and quickly nodded in acknowledgement. Chifuyu didn't believe that they would keep out of Ichika's private business, but it was their choice. In retrospect, she knew that if any of them were to abandon their team for the sake of their desires, the renegade was sure to pounce on them. That would be oddly satisfying to her, but that was another story. She suddenly hit max power and unleashed her Kurazakura, "CLASS 4, DISMISSED!"

Just like a symphony, everyone took off at the same time, at high speed. All teams took to the sky and raced across the horizon. Chifuyu looked up at the streaks of air their ISs left behind. She quietly prayed for a quick victory so that very few people as possible would be affected by this. She smiled a little before facing the park's exit. "Alright, it's been a while. Let's knock some dust off." She set her feet and arms down in starting position. She waited until one of the birds left the arch, then smirked as she took off at breakneck speed. She made the entire city her little playground with very little effort, vaulting over traffic lights, running up and down walls, jumping extremely far distances, all while admiring the fantastic view of the fast-moving world.

"Heh...almost makes me miss being a pilot..." Chifuyu commented, "Almost..."

 **-CAMP HEBRON, DAUPHIN COUNTY; 08:31-**

Phantom Task spent the night sleeping under the stars, on makeshift frames of wood and shrubs. Although the women did not get a good sleep and ended up hugging each other for warmth, Sokoto slept soundly as he was used to outdoor survival. He was the first to wake up while everyone else was snoring. To refresh himself, he jumped into the bone-filled lake and fished out some more bones.

Cecilia's awakening was far less simplistic. She was wrecked with dreams about her former comrades taunting her for abandoning everything. She still had memories of her cushy life in the UK and wanted nothing more than to cuddle up on a bed. When she woke up, she was very groggy. "Uhhhh...worst night of my-huughghghuhghghugughghgh..." She suffered from the cold weather, "I miss my blankkkkKKKKKKKK-"

SOKOTO WAS EATING MEAT OFF OF BONES! "Oh, hey, Drillago. What's up?"

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?!" Cecilia's shocked shriek woke everyone up.

"Zzzliajwbilbwegikabruisuvbj...I'm up! I'm up! I'm...up..." Silvia wa zapped awake by her IS's sudden power spike.

"Keep it down, lady..." Madoka growled.

"Ugh...morning already?" Chelsea looked like a broken duster.

"Sokoto..." Autumn muttered, "Come down from that thingy..."

"What is that?!" Cecilia crawled closer to Sokoto's morsels, only to step on a freshly used fire pit, and more bones, "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Oh my god! SHUT UP!" Madoka deployed her Twin Lance and hammer the ground, shaking the entire campsite and bringing the entire scenery to a freeze.

"Lady, you got issues," Sokoto commented mindlessly.

"Ugh, I'm done..." Madoka retracted her weapons and stomped her way into the back seat of the van.

"Ok, kid," Autumn smacked his breakfast out of his hands, "Let's wash up and get ready to go."

"Waaaaaat? Already?" Sokoto whined.

"Yes," Autumn dragged him by the hair and ducked him in the lake to wash him.

"Does she even know what's under the water?!" Cecilia screamed.

"Yes..." Chelsea joked, "I think he's the angel of death, so it'll cleanse him even more."

"Ugh...at least clean his asshole or some shit like that..."

"Hey! Language!"

"Eeep! I'm becoming American!"

"No, you're becoming crude."

"Is this our fate?! Are we destined to be devolved to the rebels?!"

"Ok, calm down there a bit-"

Just then, Silvia suddenly hijacked everyone's communications and relayed a message in their ears, "No! Don't calm down! Hide! Someone's coming!"

"WHAT?!" Madoka yelped.

"Who?!" Chelsea demanded.

"I don't know!" Silvia panicked, "But you all have to hide somewhere!"

Sokoto was about to call Silvia out for being a worrywart when he suddenly felt a massive cloud of uncertainty and resilience enshroud the back of his head, "They're here! Take cover!" He grabbed Autumn's ankle and yanked her down into the water.

"In here!" Madoka yelled for Cecilia and Chelsea to barge in, "Close it! Close it!" She pulled them under the seat and slammed the door.

Under the dock, Autumn, Sokoto, and Silvia managed to regroup. Autumn hacked and coughed until she had enough breath to berate him, "What the hell did you do that for?!"

"That's why!" Sokoto pointed to several points crossing the sky.

That's when everyone saw the main threat. Just like their assailant Chifuyu promised, fifteen of the world's strongest pilots came to play. Among them, one extremely familiar looking IS, which two recognized as the one who rejected Cecilia's pleas for love, and three recognized as the one who killed their mother.

"Shit..." Madoka muttered. There was no going back now.

As judged solely by the look on Cecilia's face, "Who's that with him?"

"That's the Patriot!" Chelsea said, "Then that means..."

"Tina's the IS Representative of the United States..." Cecilia's eyes became completely bland, and her mouth formed an unsettling smile, "No doubt trying to take what's mine..."

"Who? Ichika?" Madoka asked right before Chelsea had a chance to cover her mouth.

"No. Something Ichika has is mine, and now Tina's trying to take it. I want it back."

Okay...Well, Madoka now has a blonde Madoka to worry about. Or not, since she could use this to further her own ends. Whatever they were.

"That lousy son of a bitch..." Sokoto muttered when the pilots flew past the camp, "He still owes me..."

"That's the guy who killed Squall?" Silvia asked.

"Without a doubt."

"Bring us somewhere with connectivity and I'll get his info," Silvia fizzled back to the van.

Autumn could feel Sokoto's rage building, "Hey...about that...you don't think someone could've manipulated him to do that?..."

"If that's what really happened, I'll be really angry..."

No more words. Autumn felt the water boiling around her calves, "Ok, let's get outta here and go cool off on the road..."

"Right..." Sokoto led them out of the lake, and close to the van-"Ughghghghgh..."

"What's wrong? Do you have a cold?" Autumn shouted.

"Sort of..." Sokoto pointed to two cold auras in the van.

From which Chelsea suddenly popped out of, "No, don't come in here!"

"What?" Autumn asked, "What's the ma..."

Sokoto froze, staring at the middle row, "Uh...maid woman...what happened?..."

"I don't know!" Chelsea fled the van, "They saw Ichika and just started going psycho!"

"HUH?!" Sokoto barged into the van. He saw Madoka sitting in the front, and a seemingly calm Cecilia in the middle. "Ok...what?"

"I don't know..." Madoka whispered, "She saw the blonde girl flying beside him...and she just..."

"Ok!" Cecilia shocked everyone with her return to her normal demeanor, "I'm all better now! Shall we depart?"

"Huh?" Madoka was dumbstruck.

"Wh...weren't you going on about taking something from somebody?" Chelsea implored for an explanation.

"I'll get to it when it's the right time," Cecilia wagged her hand, "Besides, I feel like some things are better left unexplained."

Stunned silence. Wasn't she on the verge of breaking out into a rampage just a few seconds earlier? Doesn't she remember what she just said, or is this just one giant ploy?

"Ok, ok, ok, ok!" Sokoto flapped her arms up and down, "Let's just...get in the van and get the hell outta here. Ok?"

"Uh..." Silvia got nervous, "Is that really the best thing to do now?"

"Well, what choice have we got?"

"We could hold out for a few hours," Autumn suggested.

"But then, somebody could jump us out of the blue!" Chelsea protested.

"But if we go, Cecilia might kill us!" Silvia shouted.

"It's better than waiting for someone to kill us," Sokoto climbed out, "Remember, we got two people to save."

"And we can wait for an appropriate time to go after them," Autumn tried to calm him down.

"There won't be an appropriate time, because they could've been relocated!"

"We're going in circles!" Chelsea shouted, "Cecilia, what should we do?!"

"Oh, I'm fine with whatever..." Cecilia said in her creepy sing-song voice.

"Uh..." Chelsea cringed.

"Why did you think she would say something productive?" Autumn nagged, "She's clearly lost it."

Silvia quickly fizzled to Madoka's shoulder, "Uh...hey, um...quick question-"

"You figure it out, pipsqueak," Madoka flicked her off to Sokoto's foot.

"You ok, Sil?" Sokoto said.

"Yeah...I think so..." Silvia got woozy.

"Whaddaya need me for?!" Madoka growled, "Why don't we always just stomp the ground like we always do?!"

"Because we're carrying a time bomb this time..." Chelsea stammered, "One wrong move, and..."

Oh, yeah. That. Madoka forgot about the blonde clone. She had to take into account the rest of the journey if they don't want disaster to befall them again. She looked at Cecilia, who was just staring at the church with leery eyes and an unmoved posture. Then, she looked back at Sokoto and Chelsea, who want to leave right now, and Silvia and Autumn, who want to wait out the morning. Madoka was caught in the middle, due to her conflicting feelings with Sokoto, as well as the sudden responsibility to prevent the breakup of the team she decided to accept. But despite her nervousness, she knew that this would be one of many piss-your-pants choices she'll have to make in the future, if only for teaching herself how to move on. She had no choice but to discard her uncertainty, close her eyes, and flip a mental coin.

 ** _DECISION TIME: Madoka's Coin_**

 _Stay, or leave._


	5. Clogged Arteries

_Part 5: Clogged Arteries_

"We're going."

"Huh?" Silvia said.

"It's not safe here," Madoka hopped over to the driver's seat, "All of you inside now. We're going."

"Are you sure about that?" Autumn questioned.

"Positive," Madoka started the van, "Besides, we're sitting ducks out here, and they can't hit us if we're always on the move. And we can detonate the blonde bomb at will if worst comes to worst."

"M..." Chelsea whispered.

"Everybody in," Sokoto packed himself in the trunk, "We'll figure out our next move once we're outta the state."

Autumn crawled into the passenger seat, "Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

"Not a damn clue," Madoka growled as she stomped the pedals and plowed her way out of the camp.

 **-30 MINUTES LATER-**

"DAMMIT!" Xingjia slammed her fist into the dock, "I ALMOST HAD THEM!"

After being exiled from her homeland, Xingjia wandered around Japan for a bit, until she came across the three women Sokoto pissed off in the mall. They tried to get revenge three times already, as pilots of standard issues ISs, only to be utterly humiliated at every turn. Together, the four women devised a plan to ambush him in the US, which led to them splitting up to cover more ground.

Which led Xingjia here, "Fresh tire tracks...missed them by a hair..." She radioed for her three...assistants? "They've left. They're probably going west to get out of Pennsylvania."

"Perfect!" One of her teammates exclaimed, "We can bring him down with a swipe of his heel!"

"Oh, I've waited so long to see him squirm in pain..." the second emitted killing intent.

"Hey, I want it too, but let's not forget who joined him," the third reminded them.

"Exactly," Xingjia said, "Coordinate together, and attack the same target, whoever it is. And on the off chance you can't restrain them, copy their energy signatures and track them."

"Right. We'll save you some bloody seconds." Disconnected.

Xingjia put her phone away and looked at the sky, growing a wicked snarl, "You're a tool for women to advance, renegade. You will pay for challenging this truth."

 **-30 MORE MINUTES LATER-**

Meanwhile, Madoka was guiding the group down a crowded highway. She gripped the steering wheel as if to hold onto something so fragile. Autumn put her feet on the dashboard, Chelsea and Sokoto sat uncomfortably next to each other, and Cecilia was just still.

"So...pretty trees..." Silvia tried to break the ice between her teammates, but no one seemed to have even acknowledged her. She took this very convenient moment of silence to get one of her worries off her chest, "I used Madoka's weapon to kill somebody..."

"Huh?!" Everyone froze. Now, why would an IS have thoughts about that?

"Kinda odd for you to say that," Autumn said.

"Yeah...but that's how I feel..."

"You say that," Madoka butt in, "in front of a group of murderers..."

"..." Silvia just stared at Sokoto, who did nothing. He just stared intently at the road, hoping he could find a distraction from the conversation.

And to his relief, he felt three, "Guys, we got company."

"What company?!" Chelsea jumped.

"Three..." he let out a wicked grin, "...awfully familiar spoiled brats..." He opened the window and maneuvered up to the top of the van.

"What is he up to?" Cecilia whispered, to which Chelsea froze in terror.

Silvia materialized a 3D radar of her surroundings, and saw three rapidly approaching dots, "STOP!" She zapped herself to the brake pedal and gave it a body slam.

A multitude of things happened in a span of five seconds. The van screeched as it tried to stop, but it was going too fast for its own good, certainly not fast enough to avoid a potential fist from a pilot. Sokoto rocketed off the van and gave that pilot a hearty kick, then rode her like a hover board towards the other two pilots. He fired off a pair of blasts and heard a rainbow-like clang, followed by a crash of the trees. He flipped over and IB kicked the pilot away, sending her to the other side of the intersection, where she was able to regroup with her two companions.

"Well, ain't this a cold little reunion," the pilot hissed.

"I couldn't agree more," Sokoto took his battle stance.

"You should've just died under the lava, street rat!" A woman yelled, "How dare you defy our natural order!"

"Folks," Sokoto whispered, "This is what having too much money and privilege will do to you."

"How do you know when you've never even savored their flavors?!" Another caught wind of what he whispered.

"That does it..." one pilot got very angry, "I'm going to show you what happens when y-"

Sokoto didn't give her the chance. He just landed a harsh left hook on her cheek. A millisecond later, he did the splits in mid-air and IB-kicked the other two women. The woman he punched was forced into a backflip, which resulted in a crotch shot to Sokoto. He pretended to feel hurt and reeled backward, but when he fell down, he punched himself upward and charged a massive Radiant Gallic Gun.

"All of you, get out of here!" He communicated.

"Huh?!" Chelsea winced, "What's your game?!"

"They're only after me!" He responded, "If you go, I can gather all the attention to myself, and you guys can sneak around without being seen!"

"Is this the norm?!" Chelsea asked, "Just splitting up?!"

"Can you find a way to meet up with us soon?!" Autumn yelled.

"We met up in the Suicide Forest!" Sokoto reached full capacity, "I think we can meet up again!"

Silvia didn't know exactly what he meant, but she had a feeling that it didn't mean anything good, "I'll make sure he doesn't go overboard like last time..."

"Madoka, floor it," Autumn commanded.

"Where?" Madoka slammed the brakes and the gas.

"Straight ahead."

Silvia rocketed herself up to Sokoto's shoulder, while Madoka released the brakes and sped down the road.

Silvia took a split second to survey the van's position, then confirmed with Sokoto, "Fire at the intersection!"

"What?!" Sokoto was surprised to see Silvia this deep in the battle.

"Do it!" Silvia stomped his shoulder and flung the arms forward. The giant laser clobbered the pavement, "Prepare to punch!" and dragged the duo downward. On Silvia's cue, Sokoto punched the ground just before he collided with it, and triggered a massive explosion, enough to burn away anything within 500 feet of him.

Sokoto landed in the dead center of the newly created crater, "Well...we got their attention," he then sensed the three auras growing stronger, "What the hell was step two?"

"Oh, they've definitely alerted the Police," Silvia channeled a bright light in her hands, "I'm gonna find out who these old hags are."

Sokoto saw the three women stand on the edge of the crater pointing their guns at him, "Make it quick..."

"Well, well, well," one of the women taunted, "About time you knew your place..." All three women began charging their weapons to full capacity.

"Please tell me they learned how to trap me..." Sokoto prepared to take flight.

"BRING HIM DOWN!" The leader yelled.

All three women fired. Sokoto took off right before the bullets touched him and fired his grapple hook at one of the leader's subordinates. The woman was knocked back by the hook, but she used the stagger to aim at him. When he was a few feet away from punching her, she fired a grenade at point blank range straight in his face. He was knocked back towards the leader, who waited until the last moment to launch her rockets at him. Silvia saw that maneuver moments ago and detached and flung the hook at the rockets, detonating them and clearing the way for Sokoto to land a clean hit.

"Thought so," the leader smirked.

A pair of chains materialized from her back and wrapped themselves around the Streamline. They locked it in suspended animation and slowly sapped its energy.

"Yo! What's happening?!" Sokoto screamed.

"I don't know!" Silvia banged on invisible walls, "I can't zap outta here! I'm stuck!"

"A special weapon fitted into one of my weapon slots," the leader held a gun to his neck, "It's called Shadow Spell, for obvious reasons." She then unleashed all her bullets on him.

Silvia felt her neck was scraping itself against a bed of nails, "Ack...ulk...my..."

"Sil! No!" Sokoto screamed.

"YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE GIVEN US THIS FEELING, YELLOW TURD!" The leader ranted, "NOW YOU WILL PAY A ZILLION TIMES FOR HUMILIATING US!"

"What do I do now?!" Sokoto was going through every possible option in his mind, "Losing shield fast..." He saw Silvia reeling, having fallen into shock. The instant he got angry, the IS started to react. That's when he thought to himself, "Hey...what if I can will this thing outta here?"

"Now you die," the leader said, "You two! Kill him!"

The other two pilots immediately sped towards him. Sokoto sensed them coming and shut his eyes.

Just a few seconds later, he found himself a few feet away from the crater, behind the women who tried to kill him. "What the..."

"GET OFF ME!" The leader kicked her teammates out, "HOW DID YOU LET HIM ESCAPE AGAIN?!"

"Oh no..." Sokoto checked his stats. His shield was gone. His attack energy has been drained and hacked, and Silvia was completely knocked out, "Silvia! Hey, Silvia! What happened?!"

"Rrgh...it doesn't matter!" One of the women said, "He's still ours!"

"Right! Get him!" The leader rallied her team one last time, sending the dark chains after him.

Sokoto attempted to dodge the chains, but he got caught in them before he could make the sprint. He was about to get ragged into a deathblade, but in a split second the entire environment changed into a holographic solid platform of sorts. Then he saw a tornado engulf him and rip the chains to shreds. He didn't feel a single breeze though, but the women sure did. They were blown off the platform and hit the ground hard. Sokoto fell and shattered the IS, but he still went to the edge to see what happened. He was immediately pulled away by a giant kunai with chain. The platform was dispelled immediately, making way for the crater to reappear.

"Hey...I know that trick!" he said as he was pulled under the ground.

The three women couldn't catch him in time. They were left to vent out their frustrations on the giant hole.

"DAMMIT!" The leader cracked, "DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT!"

"What was that that pulled him under?!" A teammate demanded.

"Whatever that was, it's not natural," the other teammate said, "We gotta tell Xingjia about this! Somebody's obviously trying to bail him out!"

"Yep..." the leader growled, "I'm already on it..."

 **-UNDERGROUND SEWER-**

"Questions..." Sokoto said, "Why do you show up at the unexpected moments? And how?"

"How I got here matters not," Chloe said, "I am here simply to relay a message from my master, who wishes only for you to hear it."

"Master? Tabane? Rabbit woman?!" Sokoto became quite agitated, "She's got the world in the palm of her hands now! What the hell else does she want?!"

"Well, the finishing blow you dealt her..." Chloe held out a voice recorder, "She's...obsessed with it."

Obsessed? Oh no. Sokoto ran into someone like that during his pre-IS travels. The only difference was that while that person was merely human and easily dispatched, Tabane was...hard as diamond. Only someone of equal caliber could ever hope to have a chance of making a tiny dent in her physique, and Sokoto did it twice. If she challenged him, then his demise has been destined.

"*GULP*...Alright...show me the way..." Sokoto approved of playing the message. He braced himself for the absolute worse thing he could think of.

And it should've really been the last thing, because when Chloe clicked the button, the voice came through in a very eerie sing-song tone...

"You know...being super-genius has its ups and downs. For one thing, you can make whatever you want, and as long as you disguise it as something the world needs, you can get away with it. For instance, I can make a death machine of nigh unlimited power, and claim it's for the betterment of women's rights, I could be called the greatest inventor who ever lived. But, everyone has their weaknesses, and I'm no different. I could be so drowned in my own good work that I wouldn't notice a fly, dumb as a sack, sneak his way through the window, and actually sting me. Twice. I don't know how you did it. You shouldn't have been able to do that. But I caught some of your blood, and, boy howdy, it doesn't look good for you. No, you won't die from anything, which pisses me off oh so much. Oh, no no no no no no, you're a core. You're a human core. You've got Core 000 running through your veins. I want you so bad, you have no idea. I didn't know how close I was to reclaiming my missing core until that volcano bullshit. I don't know how you did it, but now you've become something very special to me. So...I wanna play a game. A game of hide and seek. Where you...try...to hide, and I'll send out everyone I know to find you. Within two days, everyone in the entire world will know what's in your blood, and everyone's gonna think that you stole from me. Not true, but who gives a shit? Not when there are so many women who think you did the impossible and will do everything in my power to erase you from history's anus. No matter where you run, no matter where you hide, I will find you, and you will right the wrongs you've caused in my work. So start running, little hero. Because I'll catch up to you."

Message received.

Sokoto stood frozen in his own emotions. Silvia regained her consciousness during the middle of the message. And just like Sokoto, she couldn't believe her ears either. Sokoto has just become a commodity. On the run with literally a price tag on his ear, and he can't get it off no matter how hard he tries. Within two days, everyone will know. He saw those test results in Canada, but the nurses burnt them to hide the secret. Seemed useless now.

Chloe stepped in and interrupted the silence, "I've heard of your mission to rescue a mother and a former pilot. And I've heard of your slow, but certain reformation of the group Phantom Task. Do you intend to continue these objectives?"

He thought for a moment. He had trouble seeing beyond the next few days, but this was one ride he would have to think very carefully about. None of the others know what's inside him, so that's a plus. But that doesn't help him in the slightest.

"Man, the questions keep piling up one after another!" Silvia fizzled to his shoulder, "Hey...you don't have to do keep doing this, you know? We can just hide away until they give up..."

"But that's the thing," Sokoto said, "They'll never give up. Rabbit woman's going to send everything after me until I give up. Or die."

"What about Madoka? Or Autumn? They will be swept up in the mess before we can warn them."

"Yeah...I guess we'll have to bring them up to speed. They can decide whether they want to stay in Phantom Task or opt out."

"So...we're still going on?"

"Uh-huh. So far, nothing has deterred me from rescuing those women. And since I'm the most wanted thing on the planet, might as well use it to my advantage. Somehow."

"Normally, I'd be down with it,"

Silvia sat on the cold dirt, "but you are nuts if you think we can ward off that many people."

"Indeed," Chloe chimed in, "With the current political landscape, I wouldn't be surprised if you were made a scapegoat of the male "disease." You would most likely make enemies out of comrades. Do you still wish to continue?"

Sokoto closed his eyes and envisioned the near future. Chloe put her hand on his forehead to read his mind, then opened her eyes to put it on display.

Unfortunately, it was as every bit as she expected. A church drenched in toilet paper, a boulevard covered in white paint, caged pets storming a city, not to mention a few super angry men and women accidentally saying the wrong thing and giving away the location of the next objective...these were but a few of the many visions that he had.

And it was glorious. "Oh, quark in a pumpernickel..." Chloe groaned.

"Onii-chan is beyond nuts..." Silvia cringed.

Chloe took one look at his outward display of dreams. The more she looked, the more she realized that the seemingly random chaos he planned to cause... "Is he now?" Yep. Planned. Sokoto was frozen in his emotions because they overheated his head, finally conjuring a master plan of how to navigate the treacherous political seas before his heart momentarily shut down. Chloe dispelled the illusion and let go of him before he looked straight at her eyes, with those same giant pupils she saw in Yamanashi.

"Positive," Sokoto answered, "Very, very positive."

Silvia was astounded and shook her head. Chloe...smiled? Oh dear god!

"I shall relay confirmation to Tabane," Chloe said, "She said two days, but I recommend you prepare in one day, as anything could happen."

"Got it."

"And also..." Chloe took a flash drive out and plugged it into his bracelet. Whatever was in that drive not only restored Silvia to her full strength, but also gave her some new upgrades to play around with, "An expansion kit for the Streamline because you chose to accept."

"Huh..." Silvia was skeptical, "She didn't put any viruses in here, did she?"

"I oversaw the process. No defects whatsoever."

"Oh..." Silvia double checked the whole package just to be safe, "Holy...this is amazing..."

"Well then, I shall take my leave," Chloe bowed, then walked over and kissed him on the forehead, "Give my regards to Phantom Task, will you?" And with that, she departed from the duo and disappeared in the darkness.

Sokoto looked at the spot where she disappeared, "Uh...we're not getting out of here, are we?"

"Oh, let's think about this one more time," Silvia said, "Your plan to combat the ever growing dissent of everything male...is to fill them to the breaking point with more hatred and more dissent..."

"...until someone breaks," Sokoto began walking down the passage, "And when one breaks, everyone will break. And I will be there capturing every beautiful moment of it."

Silvia fizzled to his head, "Quite the demented approach you're taking. But I suppose it's a lot shorter than stealth."

"Yeah. That's why teamwork is key. We have to sync with each other to survive."

"Speaking of teamwork-"

"I'll reunite with them soon enough."

"Sure, you will."

"Oh, shut up!"

 **-TABANE'S HIDEOUT-**

"*BLEERRRRGH*...Oh, that was so much cringe..." Tabane collapsed on her lounge chair, splashing a cup of tea on her chest, "I tried to make that message evil, but I'm just a playmate a heart..."

She couldn't let the one thing she lost out of her sight, nor could she let him know that he actually impressed her with his instincts alone. And thus, the awkwardly passive aggressive message.

"Whew...no more disguises, just be straightforward," she flipped over her chair and bolted to her computer. She tumbled her way over her station and landed perfectly in her seat. Then, she checked her email and found a message from Chloe, aka COMPUTER WITCH.

-We have confirmation. Package is delivered.

ChCh

"Oh, goody!" Tabane stretched, "Then that means I can start the next game!" She slammed her hands onto her keyboard, "I'll have to give him what he gave me tenfold in order to satisfy my own vengeance. Probably overkill, but whatever."

 **-FIREWHEEL MALL, DALLAS COUNTY; 12:44-**

"THIS IS CNN: BREAKING NEWS UPDATE."

"This just in, a few minutes before the previous commercial break. A giant crater engulfing the intersection of Betsey Road and Bark Road, taking much of the surrounding forest in flames, was felt by surrounding drivers and forest workers. This giant hole, which was said to have been caused hours ago, is now believed to have been caused by the renegade himself. Earlier this week, there was a confirmed sighting of the renegade and Phantom Task in New York. Here, however, they seem to have gone their separate ways. Police have spotted a van 20 miles off the Pennsylvania border-"

A special news update was being broadcast throughout the country. Most everyone who listened reacted with seething rage at the inability of their most trusted authorities and officers to wrangle in one little boy.

One such instance was at a burger joint, where an equal amount of women and men...thankfully share the same sentiments! Thank fuck for that!

"Can you believe this?!" One woman shouted, "They've failed again! How many times is this going to repeat?!"

"Until they figure out that kid's tactics," a man munched on his onion rings, "endlessly."

"You saying that our best pilots wouldn't even touch him?"

"I'm saying that they think they're far above him to stoop so low, and that's where he has the advantage. They'll stay on the high ground, while he hides in the filth, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike directly at their core, when least expected. Trust me, when you're in the filth, the world doesn't seem so crowded anymore. More time to watch and plan."

"Oh? And how would you of all people know?"

"I'm former CIA. Covert operations. And I can tell you that a fight will erupt within 10 seconds."

"Hey, don't push your knowitall wits all over the place. Just because you're fro the CIA doesn't mean-"

All of a sudden, they heard a, "So, you support the absolute harassment of women all over the world!" Sure enough, there was a fight.

Outside, a group of female teenagers surrounded a female grad student. Someone punched her to the ground and taunted her.

"You wanna see women put back in their shell!" She shouted.

The grad student struggled upright, "Why is it wrong to ask for women to be treated equally as men?"

"Because it's compromise!" The teen kicked her, "And compromising leads to submission! And we will never submit!"

"Who said anything about submitting?"

"You did, with this ring, asshole!" She smacked her to the ground and took the wedding ring off her finger, "Until you know what it means to be a real woman, stay down and don't you dare get up." They walked away from her, "Slave!"

The grad student slowly felt the pain inflicted on her ring finger. "Ouch...should have known better than to eat junk food..."

"That was more than junk food you just ate," the woman from earlier helped her on her feet, "Are you alright?"

"Oh, it's nothing," she responded, "They hit like skinny twigs. I barely felt a thing."

"Hey!" A teen saw that, "She got up!"

"Goddamn," the teen that hit the student grabbed a metal rod and ran back towards her, "I TOLD YOU TO STAY DOWN!"

"Oh, you'll feel this!" The woman wrapped herself around the student to defend her.

"You ain't a real woman!" The teen shouted, "You a hag! Jags deserve to stay on the ground!"

She swung at the student, but she ended up hitting the former CIA man instead. She saw the rod strike at his head and knock him out. In full view of all the restaurant goers, no doubt. What's worse, one of the teens had the bright idea to live stream to her friends, meaning that they just put themselves up for arrest. The teens froze in terror, as everyone inside the restaurant immediately retrieved their phones to call the police. The student and the woman knelt beside the man's head to try and stop the bleeding.

The teen that hit him tried to rationalize the hit, "It was his fault! This was woman's business and he shouldn't have-"

"You're the reason why the feminists are getting a horrible name!" Someone exactly like her insinuated, "It's time for you to just stop!"

"Shut up! What do you know about feminism?!"

"I know that you do not belong in it," a female security guard radioed for backup and chased after the teens, who started running away and scattered.

But the teen didn't shake the guard. She was tackled and handcuffed when she yelled, "Traitors! You're all traitors! You bitches!"

"Yeah, keep talking," the guard muttered, "More prison for you."

And as time went on, and more cops slowly swarmed the scene, and everyone was trying to tell their version of the story, the woman and student couldn't help but stare despairingly at the ever growing chaos, helpless to voice the truth about the story. They knew right then and there that the country was in for a harrowing experience unlike any other, and that it would be the renegade who would be its guide into the new era.

 _And thus, the scene is set for the biggest test of all time._

 _Phantom Task has now invaded the minds of nearly every person on American soil. And the girls in the van know it. They already knew how polarized the politics have become, but now there's another layer of complexity and hindrance that the renegade himself has discovered to be a part of._

 _Sokoto is the only person who is now fully aware of his status as a mere compartment for the IS. However, that's not the only thing on his mind. Among those many fantasies, two stick out the most: the possibility of someone who knows who this "Skylar Alcott" person is, and the only remaining Meusel, Daryl, whom he fears will throw his plans in jeopardy. Little does he know that one of them is en route._

 _Daryl has just entered the fray via DFW airport. Meanwhile, Forte has re-emerged via northern border crossing. The secret about his body composition will be leaked sooner than expected. And the world's greatest pilots are assembling once more, this time in the land of opportunity. Opportunities for anything, and everything, to go wrong._

 _And yet he can't help but smile, thinking about the upcoming challenges as he pops open a small black flask and squeezing a tiny drop of something on his tongue._

 _The first portion of the test will be administered on the next episode of Infinite Stratos...Virus._


End file.
